Ukraine has condemned Russia’s attacks on key energy infrastructure, saying the strikes bear the “hallmarks of nuclear terrorism”.
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”.
“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 also issued a joint statement, calling the strikes “nuclear terrorism” that weakens the energy security of the Ukrainian people.
With winter approaching, Moscow appears to carry out such strikes with a goal 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.
