Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed calls on the international community to put more pressure on Moscow, as Russia carried out a new wave of attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, cutting power to hundreds of thousands of households.
Zelenskyy said on October 12 that Russia had intensified its "aerial terror against our cities and communities, intensifying strikes on our energy infrastructure."
In the past week alone, Moscow had used more than 3,100 drones, 92 missiles, and about 1,360 glide bombs to attack Ukraine, Zelenskyy wrote on the social media platform X.
Zelenskyy accused Moscow of escalating its strikes on Ukraine, “openly exploiting the fact that the world is focused on ensuring peace in the Middle East,” a reference to US efforts to broker a cease-fire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, a group designated terrorist by Washington and the EU.
"That is precisely why no weakening of pressure can be allowed. Sanctions, tariffs, and joint actions against the buyers of Russian oil -- those who finance this war -- must all remain on the table," Zelenskyy wrote.
Zelenskyy also said that he spoke with his US counterpart Donald Trump for the second time in two days, describing their conversation as "very productive.”
"We covered all the aspects of the situation: defense of life in our country, strengthening our capabilities -- in air defense, resilience, and long-range capabilities," Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
The latest phone call between the two leaders came amid Western media reports of possible US supplies of long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
The Kremlin said the topic of potential deliveries was "of extreme concern," warning that the war has reached a dramatic moment, with escalation from all sides.
Revealing details of his call with Trump, Zelenskyy later said such "signals" from Russia indicated fear, adding that Tomahawk missiles could strengthen Ukraine's position amid US-brokered peace efforts.
On October 6, Trump said he wanted to know what Ukraine planned to do with such missiles, as he aimed to avoid further escalation.
In comments to Fox News broadcast on October 12, Zelenskyy said Ukraine would only use the missiles against military assets and would not attack civilians inside Russia.
Here Is What Tomahawk Missiles Could Do For Ukraine
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities said on October 12 that Russian forces targeted Ukraine’s electricity and gas transportation networks overnight in the latest strike on the country’s energy system ahead of winter.
Energy workers and rescuers scrambled to restore stable power supplies “despite the risks to their own lives,” Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said on social media.
The latest Russian attacks targeted the Chernihiv region in Ukraine’s north, Donetsk in its east, and the southwestern Odesa region, the ministry said.
Ukrainian authorities did not say how many people were affected by energy outages. Similar attacks the previous day had temporarily cut off electricity to over 1 million households across Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian energy firm DTEK.
Russia has targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure each winter since it invaded the country in 2022, leaving millions of people without electricity, heating, and water supplies.
Moscow denies targeting civilians and claims that Ukraine uses the energy sites to supply power to its military sector. Russia’s Defense Ministry said on October 12 that its forces carried out strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities that it said are part of Kyiv’s military-industrial complex.
The ministry said in a statement that the attacks “inflicted damage on fuel and energy infrastructure facilitating the operations of Ukraine's military and defense industry.”
Kyiv insists Russian strikes are primarily aimed against Ukrainian civilians and accuses Moscow of committing brazen war crimes.
In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy on October 12 said that Ukrainian forces had made gains in the Zaporizhzhya and Donetsk regions.
"Ukrainian units are continuing our counteroffensive operations in the Dobropillya area and elsewhere -- notably in the Zaporizhzhya sector, near Orikhiv, where our troops have advanced more than 3 kilometers to date," he said.
Orikhiv, with a prewar population of 14,000 but with only a few hundred people left, has been a frontline city since the start of Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion.
The office of the regional prosecutor in the northeastern province of Kharkiv on October 12 posted images of what it described as Ukrainian prosecutors and police investigators gathering “evidence of a war crime committed by the Russian military” at the site of a latest strike by Moscow’s forces in the city of Chuhuiv.
The authorities said the Russian drone attack on Chuhuiv damaged an educational facility and a vehicle, and shuttered windows in residential buildings.
Kyiv renewed its own air strikes on Russia overnight, with Russia’s Defense Ministry saying on October 12 that its air defenses had shot down 72 Ukrainian drones over the past 24 hours.
