The G7 pledged to rebuild Ukraine

Ukrainian President Zelensky participates in a meeting with G7 leaders via video link on December 12, 2022

The leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) reaffirmed their unwavering support and solidarity for Ukraine on Monday (December 12), pledging to provide Ukraine with much-needed military and defensive equipment to resist Russian aggression.

In a statement released by the White House, the G7 condemned “Russia’s ongoing inhumane and brutal attacks on critical infrastructure, particularly on energy and water facilities in various Ukrainian cities.”

The statement called the “indiscriminate attacks” a “war crime” and condemned those who “facilitate Putin’s illegal war.”

The statement comes a day before the upcoming G7 summit in Paris, which focuses on Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy participated in the virtual meeting.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the rotating chairman of the G7, pledged to rebuild Ukraine’s financial stability and compared it to the Marshall Plan implemented by the United States to help Europe rebuild after World War II.

Meanwhile, Russian forces attacked eastern and southern Ukraine on Monday with missiles, drones, and artillery, and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal called for the use of Patriot missiles and other high-tech air defense systems to counter Russian attacks.

At least eight civilians were injured when Russian rockets hit the town of Hernik in the Udongdonetsk region on Dec. 12, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region.

Kirilenko added that Moscow “continues to terrorize peaceful Ukrainians” and he urged the remaining residents to flee the Donetsk region. The area has become the epicenter of heavy fighting, with damaged electrical infrastructure leaving millions without power in sub-zero temperatures.

Russia’s massive attack on Odessa’s power grid over the weekend left 1.5 million people without power and the southern port inoperable.

Speaking to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Shmyhal asked for $1 billion in emergency assistance to restore Ukraine’s damaged infrastructure.

According to media reports and his own social media Telegram channel, Shmyhal told the conference: “The priority now is the survival phase – the rapid rehabilitation of critical infrastructure and energy sectors to survive the winter.”

In a nightly video address on Monday, President Zelensky said Russia continues to attack Ukraine’s power grid. “Russia is still pinning its hopes on blackouts,” he said. That is the last hope of the terrorists.

“As long as they still have missiles — and now Russia does have — take seriously all warnings from the Ukrainian military command, our Air Force, and air raid alerts,” he added. At all levels, we must be prepared for any hostility. We will do everything we can to survive this winter. ”

Since October, Russia has been carrying out attacks against Ukraine’s power grid. Zelensky said the attacks were war crimes against civilian life, while Moscow said they were legitimate military targets.

A senior Pentagon official said Russia will deplete its fully usable ammunition stockpile in early 2023. “They took the old (Russian) ammunition depot, which really shows that they are willing to use that older ammunition, some of which were originally produced more than 40 years ago,” the official, who asked not to be named.

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the

Norwegian Refugee Council said on Monday that it expected Europe to welcome another wave of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine in the winter due to the “unlivable” situation.

Egeland told Reuters: “There will be hundreds of equally horrific and illegal bombings of civilian infrastructure, making many places uninhabitable.”

The Ukrainian General Staff noted in its daily military intelligence report that the Ukrainian army repelled the Russian offensive on four settlements in the Udongdonetsk region and eight settlements in the neighboring Luhansk region. Moscow announced through a “referendum” that it would annex these two oblasts and two other Ukrainian oblasts to Russia. Ukraine and most countries internationally called it an illegal referendum and annexation.

Ukraine has said that the Russian army suffered heavy losses in the brutal war on the eastern Wudong front, but the Ukrainian army is also suffering losses.

Oleksii, a 35-year-old military doctor who declined to give his full name, told Reuters at a military hospital in Wudong: “There are a lot of seriously injured people on some days: four or five people have had their limbs amputated at a time.”

Yaroslav Yanushevych, the

governor of the recently liberated city of Kherson said at least two people were killed and five wounded in the area after Monday’s “massive shelling” by Russian troops.

At Monday’s meeting, EU foreign ministers considered new sanctions against Russia and provided more money to help the Ukrainian military, while the United States pledged to continue to support Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing airstrikes on critical infrastructure.

The proposed EU packages, which are being discussed in Brussels, will provide about $2.1 billion to deliver weapons to Ukraine.

Martin Griffiths,

head of UN aid, arrived in Ukraine on Monday to begin a four-day visit that included a stop in Mykolaiv to see the resettlement of people displaced by the Russian attack. He will also stop in Kherson to learn how local officials and the United Nations are providing heating centers for people who have lost heating, electricity, and water supply in their homes.

The U.N. statement said Griffith “will look at the impact of the humanitarian response and the new challenges posed by increased infrastructure damage in cold winter temperatures.”

(This article draws on reports from the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and Reuters.)