Russia to conduct more strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, says Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin made it clear on Thursday that the attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructureand power grids will not come down in the coming days. In the past few months, missile strikes have left Ukraine with severely damaged energy infrastructureand as a result, almost 10 million people in and around Kyiv will spend the winter without electricity. Even the World Health Organisation (WHO) expressed concerns about the current situation and said that can easily turn ‘deadly’.

"There's a lot of noise about our strikes on the energy infrastructure of a neighbouring country. Yes, we do that. But who started it?,"Putinsaid at an awards ceremony in the Kremlin.

The Russian President also said that other countries should "not interfere with our combat missions".

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has expressed its concerns about a potential Ukrainian attack on Russia-controlled Crimea as it claimed to have shot down a drone near a naval base. Drone attacks have become quite common in the region and Moscow has once again expressed its concerns.

"There are certainly risks because the Ukrainian side continues its policy of organising terrorist attacks. But, on the other hand, the information we get indicates that effective countermeasures are being taken," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters according to a report by Associated Press.

The Kremlin also opposed the decision taken by TIME magazine to name Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as the “Person of the Year”. Peskov called the decision “Russophobic” and blamed the western countries and the United States for carrying out a global propaganda campaign against Russia.

"The publication's editorial line does not go beyond the European mainstream, which is absolutely blinkered, anti-Russian, and frantically Russophobic," Peskov told reporters.