been destroyed. also the new images of the underwater pipeline connecting russia to germany that we know had been destroyed, now we see it, after powerful explosions. was it russian sabotage? and what nato has warned if it was. britt clennett in ukraine tonight. reporter: tonight, russia launching a devastating new wave of missile and drone strikes, cutting power and water to hundreds of thousands of ukrainians. video circulating online showing a massive explosion at a thermal power plant in dnipro. president zelenskyy saying nearly a third of ukraine s power stations have been destroyed, causing massive blackouts , urging his people to conserve energy. the attacks on energy infrastructure, designed to cripple the country ahead of the brutal winter freeze. desperation growing in recently-liberated towns in the kharkiv region, where the russians have used a scorched earth policy. 9-year-old artem and his grandmother iryna cooking outside on an open fire. no gas, no electricity.
this point, nato is not under threat. vladimir putin couldn t take nato if he try. he can t even take ukraine, so can we make the argument that this is about the defense of europe and nato anymore when this is really about a pretty small sliver of eastern ukraine where vladimir putin is not doing well? well, i think, what do we do? do we just walk away? i think the ukrainians have a clear opportunity here to drive the russians out of the occupied territory that they re in. and they re controlling thousands of lives of ukrainians. we re seeing them shipping tens of thousands of children unaccompanied to russia and also hundreds of thousands of ukrainians also to russia. there s general side being committed genocide being committed here. i think the opportunity here to stop this and end this kind of suffering for ukraine is real. pete: but i think, general actually winning it.
natalia and her son fled west to safety, joining hundreds of thousands of ukrainians in the face of the russian advance. her husband, andriy, was to follow. across ukraine, peoplejoined the territorial defence, a reserve military unit defending neighbourhoods.
2014, that they were unable to carry out back in 2014. this is now them saying, well actually, you know, this is the aim, and if we achieve it, that s the victory, as opposed to we have these bigger aims that we failed to achieve. i want to play something that s sobering from a ukrainian member of parliament, her assessment. what s happening in ukraine is called genocide. this is why we are explaining to the world that you cannot get into any peaceful agreement with russia because in comparison it is like going into peaceful agreement with hitler and saying, oh, we ll talk to him, and probably he will spare some lives of the jews. we know it s all useless. just quickly, is she right? i mean, the reports, what s happening in ukraine now, is horrifying, massacres of civilians, the massive displacement of entire populations, including president zelenskyy said hundreds of
trey: welcome back to sunday night in america, as we continue to cover the war in ukraine, moments ago we learned that okay, youian ukraine president zelensky told u.k. prime minister boris johnson that the next 24 hours will be crucial for his country, to lucas tomlinson live in the city of lviv. reporter: trey, hundreds of thousands of ukrainians have fled. some 20,000 have returned to take up arms against the russians. just i couldn t stay in poland and let russia destroy our cities and kill our children and our elderly. i made the decision to come back to ukraine and fight. reporter: here in the university town. these students would be