Overview
- Alexander De Croo told the BBC this weekend that Ukraine is entering its "toughest winter" since 2022 and the UN is "very, very worried" about a possible humanitarian catastrophe if power and water fail.
- De Croo accused Russian forces of carrying out systematic attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure that have degraded transmission lines, fuel sites and urban facilities and left the grid weakened.
- The UNDP is actively funding and helping to repair damaged energy assets and to deploy decentralized generation such as local backup plants and microgrids to reduce vulnerability to long-range strikes.
- Repair work is being carried out under frequent air-raid alerts that force teams to stop work and slow reconstruction, making De Croo describe the effort as a "race against the clock" before temperatures drop.
- If widespread outages hit this winter, households will face loss of heating, disruptions to water supply and sewage systems, and increased civilian casualties and displacement, with international relief and diplomacy racing to respond.