Denys Sienik, Ukraine’s charge d’affaires to the United States, pushed back against some Ukrainian officials’ predictions of an apocalyptic winter for the country, saying Kyiv and other cities wouldn’t depopulate.
Sienik, who serves as Ukraine’s most senior official in the U.S. after former ambassador Olha Stefanishyna left her position in August, cast a defiant picture of Ukraine on Thursday. Ukraine has claimed for months that Russia’s war plan for the winter is to destroy the country’s energy grid, making major cities effectively unlivable in the coldest months to bring the country to its knees. Some Ukrainian officials have predicted the complete depopulation of some cities in the winter months, but the Ukrainian government doesn’t predict the same foreboding outcome.
