Ukraine’s president Zelensky claimed in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September that Russia is planning deeper attacks on his country’s nuclear power plants, warning of what he characterised as potential nuclear disaster.
He said he had received intelligence showing that Moscow was using satellites provided by other countries to gather information about Ukraine’s nuclear infrastructure. Russia has repeatedly targeted energy facilities across Ukraine since the start of its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned a month ago following an air strike near the perimeter of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and only 100m from the only remaining high voltage line, that safety at the plant in Russian-occupied Ukraine was deteriorating.
The plant was seized by Russian forces early in the war and has come under repeated attacks, for which each side has blamed the other. Zelensky claimed in his speech that Russia had destroyed ‘all of Ukraine’s thermal power plants and a large part of its hydroelectric capacity’. The 1.8 GW Trypillya thermal power plant near Kyiv, the largest electricity provider for three regions, including Kyiv, was completely destroyed by Russian strikes in April.
