Putin's winter bullying

Since October Putin has resorted to the primary and brutal technique used by armies of the past: the siege.

Putin's new old weapons seek to directly harm the population and leave an unprotected citizenry exposed to the extreme harshness of winter without protection against cold, hunger and disease.

According to Zelenski's statements, 50% of Ukraine's electrical system no longer exists and supply problems are continuous and serious for the temperatures ahead, with many degrees below zero ahead.

The improvisation of a network of heat and energy shelters is Zelenski's response to a desperate situation where the lack of water, energy and fuel constitutes the scenario that has led to the first friction between President Zelenski and the mayor of kyiv.

The strictly military offensive comes from Russian territory or from the Black and Caspian seas with no other military interest than tightening the siege of the civilian population.

Evidence about Russia's war crimes in Ukraine continues to mount overwhelmingly.

The orders to invade the country fall squarely within the crime of aggression, contemplated in the Statute of the International Criminal Court and in the United Nations charter regarding the armed action of a State against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of an other state.

But the strategy of the last few weeks aimed at the massive destruction of civilian areas and key energy and supply infrastructures is easily identified with the figure of genocide in article II of the 1948 Convention for its prevention and punishment,

Putin may have already lost the conventional war, as many experts predict, but he is still confident of winning his war to exterminate the Ukrainian nation.

His goal is to lower the morale of the population and force Zelensky to accept a negotiation from the disadvantage of a besieged country.

It will only happen if the citizens of Ukraine surrender and we fellow European citizens falter in the military, humanitarian and financial aid that Ukraine sorely needs.

It is not Ukraine but Europe itself that is subject to Putin's winter offensive.