NATO sounds alarm over Ukraine’s worsening winter ordeal

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has underlined the urgency of maintaining support for Ukraine, warning that Russia’s continued strikes on critical infrastructure are deepening the country’s humanitarian crisis.

Speaking at the Ukrainian Breakfast in Davos, organised by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, Rutte described the severe conditions facing Ukrainian cities, according to Ukrainian media. He said large parts of the country are without basic services as winter temperatures plunge.

“Today in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, as well as in many small towns across Ukraine, there is no water supply. We know that electricity has been cut. It is minus 20 degrees Celsius in Kyiv right now. That is why we must keep our focus on Ukraine. We must not miss this moment. Peace talks are wonderful. We will do everything to make them successful, but that will not happen tomorrow,” Rutte said.

He stressed that Ukraine has an immediate need for air defence interceptors and missiles, arguing that decisions on military assistance must not be delayed and that deliveries of equipment should continue without interruption.

“Therefore, we must remain focused. European and Canadian friends, we must do this. And the United States is ready to supply as much military equipment to Ukraine as needed, especially in Europe’s interest. We must maintain this flow and not lose sight of the main issue — this is the fight against Russia. Ukrainians are doing this; they need our support. This is also a matter of our collective security,” the NATO secretary general concluded.

Earlier, former US President’s special envoy Keith Kellogg said that if Ukraine “survives” the winter, the balance of advantage in the war would shift in Kyiv’s favour rather than Russia’s.

Since the summer, NATO allies have been purchasing US-made weapons for Ukraine in packages worth $500 million through the NATO-coordinated PURL initiative. However, analysts have cautioned that European support alone cannot fully compensate for the shortfall in international arms deliveries following the suspension of US military aid to Ukraine last year.

The scale of the crisis was highlighted on January 21, when Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the latest wave of Russian attacks had pushed the capital towards a humanitarian catastrophe. He said the strikes forced authorities to shut down and drain Kyiv’s centralised heating and water systems to prevent pipes from freezing and bursting, leaving thousands of apartment buildings without heat as temperatures fell to minus 18 degrees Celsius.

Klitschko urged residents to leave the city if possible, noting that about 600,000 people have already left Kyiv this month. According to the mayor, Russian forces carried out a large-scale assault involving hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, undoing recent repairs to the energy grid and once again hitting a thermal power plant in the capital. Kyiv had already been coping with rolling blackouts and limited heating following an earlier attack in early January.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that Ukraine’s Western-supplied air defence systems were running low on ammunition because of reduced allied support, allowing Russian forces to overwhelm defences with mass missile and drone attacks. He added that other major cities, including Kharkiv and Odesa, were also left without heating and electricity after strikes on energy infrastructure.

By Tamilla Hasanova