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UN’s nuclear watchdog confirms strikes affect Ukraine’s ‘nuclear safety and security’
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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.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry denounced Russia’s attacks on substations key to safe operation of Kyiv’s nuclear power plants, calling the attacks “hallmarks of nuclear terrorism” and a “grave violation of international humanitarian law”.
Russia is carrying out “targeted strikes on such substations”, a statement issued late by the foreign ministry said.
The ministry was responding to an earlier report by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which said Russia’s military activity “has led to damage to substations critical to nuclear safety and security in Ukraine”.
Disinformation experts have warned that Russian intelligence services are using methods similar to Isis to recruit operatives using social media.
Russian intelligence is conducting targeted psychological operations on social media, directed at people within the EU, using a playbook similar to the one used by Isis between 2013 and 2019, the Center for Countering Disinformation on Telegram said in a report.
The campaigns are targeting marginalised Russian-speaking groups with religious or nationalist narratives to draw them into online communities, where radicalisation happens using disinformation, the report noted.
Recruited individuals in the EU are then given small tasks like gathering and passing on intelligence about key infrastructure in efforts to create a network of “disposable agents”, according to the report.
The Trump administration is expected to further scale back the number of American troops based in eastern Europe next month.
A small number of troops are likely to be withdrawn in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Slovakia in what the Pentagon called an “appropriate” recalibration of the US presence on the continent, the Kyiv Post reported, citing Western officials with knowledge of the matter.
An earlier US decision to withdraw a brigade from Romania already faced bipartisan backlash, with both Republicans and Democrats warning that the move could embolden Moscow.
“This decision sends exactly the wrong signal to Vladimir Putin as he continues his murderous campaign in Ukraine and tests Nato resolve through provocations against other frontline states,” Democratic senator Jeanne Shaheen said.
Republican senator Mike Turner also urged a “robust and resolute” American presence in Europe amid Russia’s aggressive posturing.
“Russia’s aggressive actions against Eastern Flank countries through intentional airspace incursions underscore Russia’s ambition beyond Ukraine,” Turner said.
Ukraine’s agents destroyed a Russian Oreshnik ballistic missile inside Russia last summer, Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday.
Kyiv’s spies destroyed the nuclear-capable missile at the Kapustin Yar missile range in Russia’s Astrakhan Oblast, one of the key sites where Moscow tests its secret weapons, the Ukrainian president said.
Russia is capable of producing up to six such missiles per year, which Moscow is seeking to deploy in Belarus, Zelensky said.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has claimed Western air defence systems are not able to intercept the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile, estimated to have a range of up to 5,000km.
Energy ministers of the Group of Seven nations (G7) issued a joint statement today condemning Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, calling the strikes “nuclear terrorism”.
Ministers representing the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the US said Russia’s attacks on substations powering Ukraine’s nuclear plants “continue to inflict devastating social, environmental, and economic consequences on the Ukrainian people”.
“Russia’s recent attacks on Ukraine’s natural gas infrastructure have created risks to communities and human lives, weakening civilian infrastructure and the energy security of the Ukrainian people,” the G7 statement said.
With winter approaching, Moscow’s “goal is 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.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Russia’s attacks on substations had affected Ukraine’s “nuclear safety and security”.
The IAEA said it had conducted a “thorough walkthrough” of one of the targeted substations supplying power to a Ukrainian nuclear power plant (NPP).
It confirmed damage to the substation’s equipment today and determined that there was a “negative impact to the reliability of the off-site power supply to Ukrainian NPPs”.
“Attacks on Ukraine’s power grid represent an ever-present danger to nuclear safety and security to all nuclear facilities in Ukraine,” IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said.
Ukrainian forces marginally advanced north of Pokrovsk even after Russia deployed an estimated 170,000 troops to surround and capture the town, geolocated footage suggests.
“There are Russians in Pokrovsk. Our guys are destroying them, destroying them little by little – because we also have to protect our personnel,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“All their forces are there,” he said.
Ukrainian forces have made some advances with their counterattacks in eastern Rodynske to the north of Pokrovsk, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Ukrainian troops are also carrying out counterattacks against Russian infiltration in northern Pokrovsk and in eastern Rih, which is immediately to the east of Pokrovsk.
Lukoil, Russia’s second largest oil company, announced it is selling its international assets in wake of new American sanctions targeting it.
The oil giant said has accepted an offer from global commodity trader Gunvor to buy its foreign assets, making it one of the biggest sales by a Russian company due to Western sanctions since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
“The key terms of the transaction have been earlier agreed by the parties. On its side, (Lukoil) accepted the offer, having undertaken not to negotiate with other potential buyers,” Lukoil said about Gunvor’s offer.
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