Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has appealed to the UN Security Council to take action to stop Russian air strikes targeting infrastructure in his country after another massive Russian missile attack on November 23 killed six people and left Ukrainian cities in the cold and dark.
"Today is just one day but we have received 70 missiles. That's the Russian formula of terror," Zelenskiy told the council meeting in New York via video link. Hospitals, schools, transport infrastructure, and residential areas had all been hit in the strike, he said, adding that Ukraine is waiting to see "a very firm reaction" from the world.
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"We cannot be hostage to one international terrorist," he said. "Russia is doing everything to make an energy generator a more powerful tool than the UN Charter."
Zelenskiy called for Russia to be denied a vote on any decision concerning its actions.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russian President Vladimir Putin was "clearly weaponizing winter to inflict immense suffering on the Ukrainian people."
The Russian president "will try to freeze the country into submission," she added.
Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya responded by complaining that it was against council rules for Zelenskiy to appear in a video link and rejected what he called "reckless threats and ultimatums" by Ukraine and its supporters in the West.
Nebenzya said damage to Ukraine's infrastructure was caused by missiles fired by air-defens systems that crashed into civilian areas and called on the West to stop providing Ukraine with air-defense missiles.
The Security Council is unlikely to take any action in response to Ukraine's appeal since Russia is a permanent member with veto power.
Earlier on November 23, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia should be recognized as a terrorist state throughout the world after the massive missile attack.
Kuleba said the latest barrage of missiles should make clear to any country still in doubt that "Russia must be recognized as [a] terrorist state worldwide and Ukraine must get all necessary air defense systems ASAP."
Kuleba’s message on Twitter came after the European Parliament designated Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Kuleba said Russia launched the "missile terror against Ukraine’s capital, other cities" in celebration of the designation. Russia has been unable to win in a fair fight against the Ukrainian military, so it is "waging a cowardly war of terror against civilians," he said.
Ihor Klymenko, chief of the National Police of Ukraine, said the rockets fired on November 23 hit 16 objects on the territory of Ukraine, including a residential building in the Kyiv region’s Vyshhorod district, killing three people and injuring 20.
Among the other victims was a newborn baby killed when a missile struck a maternity hospital in southern Ukraine.
WATCH: RFE/RL's Yehor Lohinov traveled with members of the Ukrainian Army's 58th Independent Motorized Infantry Brigade and watched as they remotely fired Ukrainian-built Stuhna missiles from a shelter. The brigade is defending the city of Bakhmut in Ukraine's Donetsk region.
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Stuhna Missiles Help Ukrainian Troops Keep Russian Armor At Bay Near Bakhmut
The Ukrainian military said its air defenses destroyed 51 out of the 70 missiles fired by the Russians.
The attack damaged infrastructure in Kyiv, leaving some areas of the capital without electricity, heat, and water, but work is under way to restore services, Kyiv’s military administration said on Telegram, promising that heat and water would be restored by the morning of November 24.
The Russian missiles also forced the shutdown of nuclear power plants, and several Ukrainian regions and neighboring Moldova reported electricity outages. The city of Lviv in western Ukraine was left completely without power, said Mayor Andriy Sadoviy.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted after the missile barrage as saying Russia had faith in the success of its offensive in Ukraine.
"The future and the success of the special operation are beyond doubt," Peskov said.
Before recognizing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, the European Parliament argued that Moscow's military strikes on civilian targets such as energy infrastructure, hospitals, schools, and shelters violated international law.
The European Parliament's website subsequently came under a cyberattack. Roberta Metsola, the president of the parliament, said a pro-Kremlin group claimed responsibility.
Zelenskiy also thanked the United States for a new $400 million aid package announced earlier on November 23. The package includes weapons, munitions, and air-defense equipment, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
"The artillery ammunition, precision fires, air defense missiles, and tactical vehicles that we are providing will best serve Ukraine on the battlefield," Blinken said in a statement.
The Pentagon said the package included additional munitions for NASAMS air-defense systems and for high-mobility artillery rocket systems.