HANNA ARHIROVA Airstrikes cut power and water supplies in a repeatedly bombed Ukrainian city and pounded critical energy facilities elsewhere on Tuesday, part of what Ukraine’s president denounced as a quickening Russian campaign to drive Ukrainians into the cold and dark and making peace talks impossible. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said nearly one-third of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed in the past week, “causing massive blackouts across the country.” “No space left for negotiations with Putin’s regime,” he tweeted. The campaign of strikes using missiles, drones and other weaponry has opened a new phase in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nearly eightmonth invasion, as winter begins to bite. Even far from battlefields, water, heating and power are no longer certainties, with daily strikes reaching far into the country to slam utilities, sometimes faster than they can be repaired. The latest city to lose power and water was Zhytomyr, home to military bases, industries, leafy boulevards and about 250,000 people some 140 kilometers (85 miles) west of the capital, Kyiv. City and regional officials said hospitals in Zhytomyr had to run on backup power after a double missile strike Tuesday targeted an energy facility and that other settlements in the area also lost electricity. In Kyiv, missile strikes damaged two power facilities, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko. The attacks killed one person and injured six others, he said. As well as missiles, Russia is mixing up its modes of attack. Suicide drones — so called because they slam into targets and explode — set ablaze an infrastructure facility in the partly Russian-occupied southern Zaporizhzhia region, the regional governor said. Air-defense S-300 missiles that Russia has been repurposing as ground-attack weapons as its stocks are being depleted were used to strike the southern city of Mykolaiv, killing a man whose body was found in the debris of a two-story building, the region’s governor said. In the eastern city of Kharkiv, rockets were used to hit an industrial area. The regional governor said the eight rockets were fired from across the nearby border with Russia. Waves of explosives-laden suicide drones had also struck Kyiv on Monday, hitting energy facilities and setting ablaze and partly collapsing buildings. One drone slammed into a four-story residential building, killing four people. Ukraine says Russia is getting thousands of drones from Iran. The Iranian-made Shahed drones that nose-dived with their explosive charges into targets in Kyiv on Monday have also been widely used elsewhere in recent weeks. In the past week alone, more than 100 drones have slammed into power plants, sewage treatment plants, residential buildings, bridges and other targets in urban areas, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said. In a televised address on Monday night, Zelenskyy said Russia is using kamikaze drones because it is losing ground in the war. “Russia doesn’t have any chance on the battlefield, and it tries to compensate for its military defeats with terror,” he said. “Why this terror? To put pressure on us, on Europe, on the entire world.” PTI The Prime Minister Narendra Modi call for a global response to global terrorism could not have come at a more opportune time. The world is facing the threat of terrorism like never before. Terrorism is faceless and recognizes no borders. Its victims too are for the most part innocent civilians. It is in this context that the Prime Minister has urged the global community to work faster to “eliminate safe havens” for terrorists, criminals and the corrupt. He went on to emphasise that when the forces of good cooperate, the forces of crime cannot operate. The Prime Minister was inaugurating the 90th General Assembly of Interpol being held in New Delhi. He warned about the harmful globalised threats that the world faces — terrorism, corruption, drug trafficking, poaching and organised crime. The pace of change of these dangers is faster than earlier. When threats are global, the response cannot be just local! It is high time that the world comes together to defeat these threats, the Prime Minister emphasized. The conference is being attended by 195 member countries of Interpol which included a delegation of Pakistan led by its Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director General Mohsin Butt. Modi said India has been combating trans-national terrorism for several decades. Long before the world woke up to it, India knew the price of safety and security. Thousands of our people made the ultimate sacrifice in this fight. A safe and secure world is a shared responsibility of the global community. When the forces of good cooperate, the forces of crime cannot operate. There can be no safe havens for the corrupt, terrorists, drug cartels, poaching gangs or organised crime. Such crimes against people in one place are crimes against everyone, crimes against humanity. Further, these not only harm our present but also impact our future generations. Police and law enforcement agencies need to devise procedures and protocols to increase cooperation. Interpol can help by speeding up Red Corner Notices for fugitive offenders. India has 780 active Red Notices as of now, of which 205 are related to criminals wanted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The Prime Minister pointed out that terrorism is not limited to physical space and has spread its presence through online radicalization and cyber threats. At the click of a button, an attack can be executed or systems can be brought to their knees. Each nation is working on strategies against them. But what we do within our borders is no longer enough. There is a need to further develop international strategies. Establishment of early detection and warning systems, protecting transportation services, security for communication infrastructure, security for critical infrastructure, technical and technological assistance, intelligence exchange, many of these things need to be taken to a new level. The Prime Minister said corruption and financial crimes have harmed the welfare of the citizens of many countries. The corrupt find a way to park the proceeds of crime in different parts of the world. This money belongs to the citizens of the country from which they have been taken. Often, this has been taken from some of the poorest people in the world. Illicit money is pushed into evil activities and becomes one of the major sources of terror funding. From illegal drugs that destroy young lives to human trafficking, from weakening democracies to the sale of illegal arms, this dirty money funds many destructive enterprises. Yes, there are diverse legal and procedural frameworks to deal with them. However, there is a need for the global community to work even faster to eliminate safe havens. India is hosting the Interpol General Assembly after a gap of about 25 years to coincide with celebrations for the 75th year of India’s independence. The proposal in this regard was conveyed by Home Minister Amit Shah to Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock during his visit to India in 2019. The proposal was put to vote in the last General Assembly which was accepted with an overwhelming majority. SPIRITUAL WORLD DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in the articles published in these columns are the personal opinions of the authors. 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