At a meeting of the UN Security Council, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia wants to attack Ukrainian nuclear power plants and Kyiv has evidence, Radio Svoboda reports.
We are now approaching the third winter in this war and Russia is again trying to destroy our energy system. This time they are even more cynical, they have prepared to target our nuclear power plants. We have this information and evidence, – he said.
Zelenskyy added that if Russia is ready to go this far, it means that nothing is valuable to Moscow.
So far, the Russian representative has not commented on Zelenskyy’s accusations during the UN Security Council meeting.
Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, citing Ukrainian intelligence, said that Russia was preparing strikes on critical nuclear energy facilities in Ukraine ahead of winter. In particular, he said, it was about open switchgear at nuclear power plants and transmission substations, which are critical for the safe operation of nuclear power.
Since October 2022, Russian forces have been regularly attacking critical infrastructure facilities. Due to these attacks, blackout schedules have been introduced, and Ukraine has been importing electricity to compensate for the power shortage.
According to the Ministry of Energy, Russia has launched more than a thousand attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities, and this year alone, 9 GW of generating capacity was lost due to the attacks.
