BUCHAREST -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday condemned Russia's weeks-long assault on Ukraine's power grid and other infrastructure as an attempt to "freeze and starve" its people, with the war-torn country's foreign minister renewing a call for advanced missile systems.
Blinken spoke after a meeting with his NATO counterparts in Bucharest, Romania, devoted in part to coordinating aid to keep the lights -- and furnaces -- on in Ukraine, where Russian strikes have damaged much of the country's electrical infrastructure.
"Russia has bombed out more than a third of Ukraine's energy system. Plunging millions into cold, into darkness as frigid temperatures set in. Heat. Water. Electricity. For children, for the elderly, for the sick. These are President [Vladimir] Putin's new targets. He's hitting them hard," he said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has underscored that his country's biggest needs now are electrical gear and more advanced air-defense systems than it has so far received from the U.S. and other allies, to stop Russia from bombing its grid in the first place.
"The best way to help the Ukrainian energy system is to provide both spare parts to restore [the] energy system and air defense systems and ammunition to defend Ukraine's energy system from further missile terror conducted by Russia," Kuleba said.
Heading into a one-on-one session with Blinken on the sidelines of the NATO gathering, Kuleba said that Ukraine at the session had received "a number of commitments, new commitments, from various NATO members with regard to providing Ukraine with more defensive weapons and energy equipment."
But he declined to answer questions about whether that included promises of badly wanted Patriot missile batteries, from the U.S. or any other ally. Kuleba did say, however, that Ukraine would take German Patriots, if those Berlin has offered to Poland can be spared.
The provision of Patriot surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine would mark a major advance in the kinds of air defense systems the West is sending to help the war-torn country defend itself from Russian aerial attack. Talk of it has already angered Moscow.
"If Germany is ready to provide Patriots to Poland, and Poland has nothing against handing these patriots over to Ukraine, then I think that the solution for the German government is obvious," Kuleba told reporters.
"We are ready to operate them in the safest and efficient and most efficient way. And once again, I would like to reiterate that this is a purely defensive weapon. We will be working with the German government on this particular issue next time," he added.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Tuesday that his country's offer to send Patriots to Poland remains on the table, despite Warsaw's suggestion that they should go to Ukraine instead.
Ukraine does not have personnel trained to use Patriots -- a complicated air defense system of which there are three main types, with varying ranges and altitudes. Germany has lent them to Slovakia and Turkey but sent its own technicians to operate the missiles.
NATO allies would almost certainly refuse to send any military personnel into Ukraine, to avoid being dragged into a wider war with nuclear armed Russia. They would also want guarantees that Ukraine would only use the missiles to defend its air space and not fire them into Russian territory.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has confirmed that deliveries of such sophisticated surface-to-air missiles systems are under consideration among some allies. The military organization does not possess any weapons, only its member countries do.
A senior U.S. defense official who briefed Pentagon reporters on Tuesday, on condition of anonymity, said that the United States is open to providing Patriots. While Ukraine has asked for the system for months, the U.S. and its allies have been hesitant to provide it to avoid further provoking Russia.
Russia is deeply opposed to the move. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said Tuesday on his Telegram channel: "If, as Stoltenberg hinted, NATO supplies the Kyiv fanatics with Patriot complexes along with NATO personnel, they will immediately become a legitimate target of our armed forces."
WAR CRIMES COURT
The European Union proposed Wednesday to set up a U.N.-backed court to investigate possible war crimes Russia committed in Ukraine, and to use frozen Russian assets to rebuild the war-torn country.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a video message that the EU will work with international partners to get "the broadest international support possible" for the tribunal, while continuing to support the International Criminal Court.
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, his military forces have been accused of abuses ranging from killings in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha to deadly attacks on civilian facilities, including the March 16 bombing of a theater in Mariupol that an Associated Press investigation established likely killed close to 600 people.
Investigations of military crimes committed during the war in Ukraine are underway around Europe, and the Hague-based International Criminal Court has already launched a probe.
But because Russia does not accept the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction, the European Commission said it presented to the 27 EU countries two options to hold the Kremlin accountable: either a "special independent international court based on a multilateral treaty or a specialized court integrated in a national justice system with international judges -- a hybrid court."
Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska on Tuesday also urged that Ukraine's invaders be held accountable.
"Victory is not the only thing we need. We need justice," she told lawmakers in London, comparing Russian war crimes to the atrocities Nazi Germany committed in World War II.
She called on Britain to lead efforts to set up a criminal tribunal to prosecute senior Russians, similar to the postwar Nuremberg trials of leading Nazis.
Von der Leyen on Wednesday added that the EU wants to make Russia pay for the destruction it caused in neighboring Ukraine by using Russian assets frozen under sanctions.
She estimated the damage to Ukraine at $617 billion.
"Russia and its oligarchs have to compensate Ukraine for the damage and cover the costs for rebuilding the country," von der Leyen said. "We have the means to make Russia pay."
Von der Leyen said $308 billion of the Russian central bank reserves has been immobilized, and that $20 billion of Russian oligarchs' money has been frozen.
"In the short term, we could create with our partners a structure to manage these funds and invest them," she said. "We would then use the proceeds for Ukraine, and once the sanctions are lifted, these funds should be used so that Russia pays full compensation for the damages caused to Ukraine."
The EU said the lifting of the restrictions on Russian assets could be linked to conclusion of a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia that would settle the question of damages reparation.
In other Ukraine war developments:
• Russia's military appear to be studying targets, positioning warships and making other preparations to resume major attacks that have crippled Ukraine's energy and water infrastructure, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday. "At Russian airfields strategic aircraft are equipped, tactical aircraft are equipped, and a missile carrier is put on duty. These are indirect signs of preparing for a strike," Ukrainian southern military command spokeswoman Natalia Humeniuk said on Ukrainian TV.
• Ukraine's presidential office said at least five civilians were killed and 21 wounded in the latest Russian shelling nationwide. Russian attacks in the Donetsk region focused on the strategically located town of Kurdiumivka south of Bakhmut. In Bakhmut, Russian rockets hit residential buildings and a kindergarten, according to regional authorities.
Information for this article was contributed by Ellen Knickmeyer, Lorne Cook, Samuel Petrequin, Yuras Karmanau and Andrew Katell of The Associated Press.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba during the NATO foreign ministers meeting in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022. (Stoyan Nenov/Pool Photo via AP)
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, center, attends the second day of the meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken gestures during a press conference in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022. Blinken condemned Russia's weeks-long assault on Ukraine's power grid, saying as NATO scrambled Wednesday to scrape up replacement electrical gear that Russia had turned its war machine to strikes aiming to "turn off the heat…so that civilians suffer."(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022. Blinken condemned Russia's weeks-long assault on Ukraine's power grid, saying as NATO scrambled Wednesday to scrape up replacement electrical gear that Russia had turned its war machine to strikes aiming to "turn off the heat…so that civilians suffer."(AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba looks on as he meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the NATO foreign ministers meeting in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022. (Stoyan Nenov/Pool Photo via AP)
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives for a press conference in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022. Blinken condemned Russia's weeks-long assault on Ukraine's power grid, saying as NATO scrambled Wednesday to scrape up replacement electrical gear that Russia had turned its war machine to strikes aiming to "turn off the heat…so that civilians suffer."(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
A Ukrainian woman walks through her apartment block in Irpin, Ukraine, on Wednesday. The town was heavily damaged in the early weeks of the war. Now, in Irpin and across Ukraine, civilians are bracing for the brutal winter months while enduring electricity shortages caused by Russian attacks on infrastructure. (The New York Times/David Guttenfelder)
A shopper leaves H&M’s flagship Moscow store on Wednesday before the world’s No.2 fashion retailer closed all of its stores in Russia for good. H&M closed its stores soon after Russia invaded Ukraine, but has reopened them intermittently since August to sell surplus inventory. (AP/Alexander Zemlianichenko)