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‘We will send Ukraine back to the 18th century’: Vladimir Putin ally says Russian troops will continue targeting power plants to destroy country’s infrastructure
- Putin ally Pyotr Tolstoy said Russia ‘will send Ukraine back to the 18th century’
- Duma deputy chairman said attacks on Ukraine’s power stations will continue
- He also warned that Ukraine’s allies will “pay the price” for helping the nation
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Vladimir Putin will “send Ukraine back to the 18th century” by continuing attacks on the country’s energy facilities, one of his closest allies has claimed.
Pyotr Tolstoy, the deputy chairman of the State Duma, warned that Russian attacks on Ukrainian power plants would not stop before the winter.
“Ukraine’s infrastructure will be destroyed and Ukraine will be sent back to the 18th century,” the member of Putin’s United Russia party declared.
In a diatribe on French broadcaster BFM, the MP of Russia’s parliament, which has faced sanctions from the US, EU and Britain, warned that Ukraine’s allies will “pay the price.”
He added that the West “must prepare for a war that will last for years.” But Mr Tolstoy’s bizarre intervention appears to be at odds with a statement issued by Russia’s Defense Ministry yesterday.
A resident injured after a Russian attack lies in an ambulance before being taken to a hospital in Kherson, southern Ukraine, on Thursday
A Ukrainian paramedic helps an injured resident shortly after a Russian attack in Kherson on Thursday
Two residents survey the damage in their neighborhood after a Russian attack in Kherson Thursday
Vladimir Putin (pictured) will “send Ukraine back to the 18th century” by continuing attacks on the country’s energy facilities, top ally Pyotr Tolstoy said.
Officials in Moscow made the baseless claim that the damage to the Ukrainian capital’s critical infrastructure was caused by “foreign and Ukrainian” air defense missiles.
“No attacks have been carried out against any targets in the city of Kiev,” Russia’s defense ministry said, though it declined to comment on similar attacks that knocked out power elsewhere.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said Ukraine could “put an end to suffering” by withdrawing “in a way that meets the demand of the Russian side.” “The leaders of Ukraine have every chance to return the situation to normal,” said Peskov, Putin’s staunch propagandist.
Moscow has repeatedly rejected Ukraine’s demand to leave the country before peace talks can begin.
Since early October, Russia has fired a barrage of missiles and sent Iranian-made drones at energy targets across Ukraine to cripple its power grid as temperatures dip below freezing.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, labeled the bombings as “war crimes” and added: “Women, men and children are left in the dark because of Putin’s deliberate and barbaric attacks on the country’s civilian infrastructure.”
“Ukraine’s infrastructure will be destroyed and Ukraine will be sent back to the 18th century,” warned Pyotr Tolstoy (pictured), the deputy chairman of Russia’s State Duma.
Tolstoy warned that Russian attacks on Ukrainian power stations would not stop before the winter. Pictured: Ukrainian firefighters extinguish a fire at a power plant damaged by a Russian missile strike
The UN’s World Health Organization has warned of “life-threatening” consequences if Russian attacks continue and estimates that millions more could flee the country as a result.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in Kiev last night that more than two-thirds of the city remained under lockdown, though some water supplies had been restored overnight.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian armed forces said Russia had fired up to 70 cruise missiles at Ukrainian towns and villages on Wednesday.
“Calling for peace while launching missiles at peaceful cities (is) the highest degree of personality disorder,” Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior aide to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said yesterday.