Russian strikes on energy grid condemned as ‘nuclear terrorism’
G7 claim Russian attacks are inflicting "devastating social, environmental, and economic consequences" on Ukraine.
The UN nuclear watchdog has confirmed that recent Russian strikes are affecting Ukraine's "nuclear safety and security" as Kyiv claims Russia's attacks on key energy infrastructure bear the "hallmarks of nuclear terrorism".
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The Ukrainian foreign ministry said Putin's forces are carrying out "targeted strikes" on power substations supplying energy to nuclear power plants across Ukraine.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also condemned the attacks, confirming after a field visit that the strikes affected Ukraine's "nuclear safety and security".
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“Attacks on Ukraine’s power grid represent an ever-present danger to nuclear safety and security to all nuclear facilities in Ukraine," the IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said.
Energy ministers from the G7 group of nations have also issued a joint statement, calling the strikes “nuclear terrorism” that weakens the energy security of the Ukrainian people.
Moscow denies that it targets civilians and that it simply responds to Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure.
Both countries regularly accuse each other of targeting one another’s energy sites.
With winter approaching, Moscow appears to carry out strikes that aim to "plunge Ukraine into darkness”, Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.
“Russia continues its systematic energy terror – striking at the lives, dignity, and warmth of Ukrainians on the eve of winter,” Svyrydenko said
Kyiv announced nationwide limits on electricity supplies to retail and industrial consumers following Thursday’s attacks, while water supplies and heating were also disrupted in some regions.
The United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also said three Ukrainian nuclear power plants were forced to reduce output due to the assault.
On October 23, the Russian-installed administration of Zaporizhia said it had repaired a damaged high-voltage line and restored external power to the plant.
It had been without external electricity for 30 days and relying on backup diesel generators since September 23, when its last remaining external power line was severed in attacks that each side blamed on the other.
Europe’s largest nuclear plant, with six reactors, Zaporizhzhia, currently produces no electricity, but needs external power to cool the nuclear fuel and avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.