White House Condemns 'Outrageous' Russian Attack On Ukraine Power Grid

The White House on Monday strongly denounced the latest Russian assault on Ukraine's power grid, pledging continued support to Kyiv, and vowing that Moscow would "never succeed" in this war, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

President Joe Biden issued a statement just hours after Russia launched waves of missiles and drones against Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure killing and wounding a number of civilians, and targeting more than two dozen critical energy sites.

"I condemn, in the strongest possible terms, Russia’s continued war against Ukraine and its efforts to plunge the Ukrainian people into darkness," Biden noted in his statement. "Let me be clear: Russia will never succeed in Ukraine, and the spirit of the Ukrainian people will never be broken."

Speaking to reporters earlier in the afternoon, Biden advisor John Kirby, coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council, called the latest Russian attacks on Ukraine "a classic play out of the playbook for Vladimir Putin to go after energy infrastructure, particularly as he knows the weather is about to turn and people are going to need heat and power a lot more as things get colder in Ukraine."  

The U.S, he said, was focused on making sure that the Ukrainains have as robust an air defense capability as possible.  When asked to comment on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's recent call to lift restrictions on the use of Western weapons for strikes on Russian territory, Kirby said that the Ukrainian leader had previously called for the removal of such restrictions both privately and publicly. Washington understands that Zelenskyy is making these calls because his country is under attack.

"But as I've said many, many times, we'll keep the conversations with the Ukrainians going, but we're going to keep it private," Kirby said, adding that he could not speak about any changes in U.S. policy on this issue.
 

Biden, in the meantime, noted in his statement that U.S. support for Ukraine "is unshakable." 

"Since February 2022, the people of Ukraine have courageously defended against Russia’s invasion, retaking more than half the territory Russian forces seized in the initial days of the war. Ukraine remains a free, sovereign and independent nation, and Ukrainian forces are fighting every day to defend their homeland and their freedom. The United States will stand with the people of Ukraine until they prevail," he emphasized.

Alex Raufoglu