Russia would launch new missile attacks on Ukraine and that the defence forces and citizens need to be prepared to withstand a new week of strain on the power grid, warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, reported news agency Reuters. "We understand that the terrorists are planning new strikes. We know this for a fact," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. "And as long as they have missiles, they, unfortunately, will not calm down."
He said that the coming week can be as difficult as the previous week, when attacks on electricity infrastructure subjected Ukrainians to the most acute power cuts since Russian troops invaded in February.
“Our defence forces are getting ready. The entire country is getting ready,” he said. “We have worked out all the scenarios, including with our partners,” he added, quoted by the news agency.
Moscow had no immediate response to Zelensky’s claim, the report added.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Moscow has said it does not target the civilian population. The Kremlin said on Thursday that Kyiv could "end the suffering" of its population by meeting Russia's demands.
Russia annexed swaths of Ukraine's east and south in September and President Vladimir Putin said Moscow's territorial demands are non-negotiable. After the annexation Zelenskiy said he would not negotiate with Moscow and also insisted that Ukraine's territorial integrity cannot be negotiated.
The report stated that with no devastating attack on Kyiv or any other major cities, Sunday was relatively calm. Ukraine's central army command said Russian forces launched four missile attacks and fired multiple times on civilian objects in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
The situation, however, remained intense along front lines in various parts of Ukraine, Zelenskiy said in his nightly address.
"The most difficult is in the Donetsk region as has been the case in previous weeks," he said.