Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Mariana Betsa told the UN General Assembly that Russia is turning cold into a weapon against Ukrainian civilians.
Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Mariana Betsa addressed the resumed 11th Emergency Special Session of the UN General Assembly on September 2, speaking on the situation in Ukraine's temporarily occupied territories. Volunteers Support Ukraine follows statements like this closely, since they underpin the international support civilians need to get through the coming winter.
Betsa said the Kremlin's strategy remains the same even as its tactics shift: "Russia has turned cold into a weapon — striking power plants and energy networks with the explicit aim of leaving civilians without electricity, heating, and water in freezing temperatures." She called it a deliberate state policy — "the weaponization of winter, darkness, and cold to break a nation by destroying its will to resist."
Betsa said Russia is making no headway on the front line, so it is instead intensifying attacks on civilians to destabilize Ukrainian society and pressure international partners through their fears. She said Russia resorts to "daily terror using drones and ballistic missiles — 15 to 20 air raid alerts a day," and that Moscow "knows what our partners are afraid of" and "manipulates those fears."
Betsa appealed to partners to provide every possible assistance in strengthening Ukraine's air defense and supplying interceptor missiles, calling it "priority number one" ahead of the autumn-winter period. The pattern of General Assembly votes in recent years shows that international support for Ukraine has stayed steady despite Moscow's pressure and attempts to shake it.
Every approaching winter brings new hardship for millions of Ukrainians living without reliable heat and electricity. Volunteers Support Ukraine (NGO Volunteers Support Ukraine) continues helping people affected by the war in whatever way its available resources allow, and believes international unity behind Ukraine needs to stay just as consistent as Russia's pressure tactics.
