Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for a "very firm reaction" at a UN meeting Wednesday in response to Russian missile strikes on his country's power infrastructure.
Zelensky told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that Ukraine was hit by 70 missiles during the day.
He said residential districts, hospitals and schools were also damaged by the Russian strikes.
Zelensky also accused Russia of trying "to turn the cold of winter into a weapon of mass destruction."
''We have temperatures below zero and millions of people without energy supplies, without heating, without water. This is an obvious crime against humanity,'' he said.
He called on the UN to send an additional team to Ukraine to examine and evaluate the critical infrastructure damaged by the Russian strikes.
UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo said these latest attacks renew fears that this winter will be catastrophic for millions of Ukrainians, who face the prospect of months of frigid weather with no heating, electricity, water, or other basic utilities.
According to initial media reports quoting local authorities, the latest strikes killed or injured over 30 civilians as residential buildings were hit on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv.
''We have also seen reports of an overnight strike on a maternity hospital in the town of Vilnyansk in the Zaporizhzhia region. A two-day-old baby was reportedly killed in that attack,'' she said. ''Attacks targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure are prohibited under international humanitarian law.''
The United Nations strongly condemns the attacks and demands Russia immediately cease these actions, she added.
Russia's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia put the blame for the damage to Ukraine's infrastructure on the air defense missiles that the West had provided.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of weaponizing winter to inflict ''immense'' suffering on the Ukrainian people.
''He has decided that if he can't seize Ukraine by force, he will try to freeze the country into submission,'' she said. "Having struggled on the battlefield, Moscow is now adopting a cowardly and inhumane strategy that punishes Ukrainian men, women and children.''
