Russian drone strikes have damaged a thermal power plant in Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine overnight, leaving 46,000 consumers without heating as temperatures plunge below freezing, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
“This was done deliberately to leave people without heat in sub-zero temperatures and create a humanitarian catastrophe,” Shmyhal said on the Telegram messenger app.
Russia attacked Ukraine with 143 drones overnight, but the Ukrainian military said it shot down 95 of them, while 46 did not reach their targets, likely thanks to the use of electromagnetic countermeasures that disrupt drone attacks.
At least one person was injured in the overnight attacks which also damaged houses in the Kyiv region, Ukrainian officials said. The temperature in Mykolaiv is expected to fall to minus 7 degrees Celsius (19.4 Fahrenheit) on Sunday night.
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from Kyiv, said the Ukrainian army announced it has seen an “uptick in attacks by Russian forces” over the past 24 hours.
“In general … we’ve seen no really big gains made by Russian forces for months now – but no indication that the fighting is going down,” he said.
Protect the world ‘from evil’
On the sidelines of the three-day Munich Security Conference, which concludes on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Western allies to boost Ukraine’s air defence.
Zelenskyy said Russia now holds 20 percent of Ukraine and is slowly advancing in the east as Moscow’s full-scale invasion nears its third anniversary.
He cited data showing that over the past week, Russia had unleashed about 1,220 aerial bombs, over 850 drones, and more than 40 missiles into government-controlled areas of Ukraine.
There was no immediate comment from Russia.
“Europe and the world must be better protected from such evil and prepared to confront it,” Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post.
“This requires a strong, united foreign policy and pressure on Putin, who started this war and is now expanding it globally,” he said.
“Together with Europe, the US, and all our partners, we can end this war with a just and lasting peace.”
United States President Donald Trump shocked European allies and Ukraine this week by calling his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, without consulting them or Kyiv beforehand and declaring an immediate start to peace talks.
Things ‘moving quickly’
Trump’s Ukraine envoy, General Keith Kellogg, said on Saturday that Europe will not have a seat at the table for Ukraine peace talks after Washington sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv.
Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from Munich, said an emergency meeting of foreign ministers of the European Union “hastily convened” over concerns that they – as well as Ukraine – might be sidelined in the US-led peace talks with Russia that are expected to take place in Saudi Arabia in the coming days.
However, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told France Inter radio on Sunday that President Emmanuel Macron would host the meeting as planned.
Five European diplomats said the meeting would include France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain and Denmark, which would represent Baltic and Scandinavian countries.
“There cannot be anything [done] without Ukraine and also anything without Europe,” said Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna.
He also confirmed that leaders would meet on Monday.
“Things are moving quickly,” he told Al Jazeera. “We must be sure and clear about what we are going to do.”
He said European countries can still deliver “support” and “funds” that they have promised.
On Saturday, Zelenskyy called for the creation of a European army, arguing the continent could no longer be sure of US protection and would only get respect from Washington with a strong military.
In response, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in an interview that European countries will not create one unified army in response to threats from Russia.
Asked about the possibility of the creation of a European army, Sikorski told state broadcaster TVP World, “We should be careful with this term because people understand different things.”
“If you understand by it the unification of national armies, it will not happen,” he said. “But I have been an advocate for Europe, for the European Union, to develop its own defence capabilities.”