 "Ukraine accuses Russia of ‘nuclear terrorism’ over strikes on energy infrastructure")
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has denounced what it described as deliberate Russian strikes on substations essential for supplying external power to the country’s nuclear power stations. In a statement issued late on Friday, the ministry said Russia had conducted “targeted strikes on such substations”, warning that such actions endangered the safe operation of nuclear installations.
“These deliberate strikes on civilian energy facilities that directly affect the safe operation of nuclear installations bear the hallmarks of nuclear terrorism and constitute a grave violation of international humanitarian law,” the statement added.
The ministry cited a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), released on Thursday, which confirmed military activity causing damage to substations critical to nuclear safety and security in Ukraine.
Nuclear plants lose power lines amid growing risks
According to the IAEA, incidents near the South Ukraine and Khmelnitskyi nuclear plants resulted in each losing access to an external power line. A third facility at Rivne was forced to reduce output at two of its four reactors. The agency did not specify which side was responsible for the damage.
Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of military actions threatening the safety of Ukraine’s four operational nuclear stations, especially the Zaporizhzhia plant—Europe’s largest, with six reactors—seized by Russian forces in the early weeks of the February 2022 invasion.
The IAEA noted that efforts were continuing to reconnect one of the two external power lines to the Zaporizhzhia facility, which is vital for cooling nuclear fuel and preventing potential meltdowns. The plant currently produces no power.
There has been no official response from Moscow to the IAEA or Kyiv’s statements. Both external connections to the Zaporizhzhia plant were disabled for about 30 days in September and October, forcing reliance on emergency diesel generators. Kyiv and Moscow have each blamed the other for the outage and for hindering repair efforts.
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