Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy grid are "barbaric," but they won't succeed in shattering the alliance's united determination to keep Ukraine free, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday.
"Over the past several weeks, Russia has bombed out more than a third of Ukraine's energy system, plunging millions into cold, into darkness, as frigid temperatures set in," he said on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Bucharest.
"Heat, water, electricity for children, for the elderly, for the sick. These are President [Vladimir] Putin's new targets."
But Blinken said the countries that have allied to aid Ukraine are willing to keep on the fight, even though they know that there will be costs for them as well. "We know that standing up for Ukraine means accepting difficult costs, particularly for our European allies. But the cost of inaction would be far higher."
