Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine that Russia wanted Ukraine to have “a cold winter when many people could literally freeze to death.”
This may lead to a “planned humanitarian catastrophe such as Europe has not seen since the Second World War," he said, adding that Ukrainians may flee to Europe en masse due to the Russian strikes on energy infrastructure.
Shmyhal also asked for 10,000 mobile generators and mobile heating systems to help Ukrainian households.
Ukraine may also need electricity imports from the West in the wake of Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, Shmyhal said.
He said that the newly delivered German IRIS-T air defense systems are now in use but Ukraine is “impatiently” waiting for new ammunition that the country needs “right now" to defend its infrastructure.