Missile barrage raises new worries on Ukraine’s nuclear safety

European Union officials raised the alarm about nuclear safety in Ukraine after widespread Russian missile attacks overnight on the nation’s energy infrastructure. 

Among the impacts from the largest missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s energy systems since the start of Moscow’s invasion in 2022, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the nation’s southeast lost its connection to the power grid for five hours. 

German Galushchenko, Ukraine’s energy minister, briefed officials at an emergency meeting of the International Advisory Council to Ukraine convened by EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson “including possible nuclear threats, given that the attacks have an impact on the power lines feeding” the atomic plant, according to a statement. 

“I urged the members of the International Advisory Council to Ukraine to continue to provide support,” Simson said. “The Russian attacks are reckless and I condemn them in the strongest possible terms.” 

Several Ukrainian regions suffered power outages on Friday (Mar 22), prompting President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to again urge foreign allies to accelerate military aid. 

In a statement, Russia’s defense ministry said its forces had made “a massive strike against facilities of the energy sector, the military-industrial complex, railway hubs, arsenals” and locations where Ukrainian troop formations and “foreign mercenaries” were stationed. 

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Certain “foreign military equipment” delivered to Ukraine by NATO countries had been also destroyed and transfers of equipment to the front lines disrupted, according to the ministry. 

Ukraine’s air defense intercepted less than half of the 88 missiles, which affected electricity generation and transmission systems across the country early Friday, Zelenskiy said on his Telegram channel. Most of an estimated 63 drones were taken down. 

Moscow’s goal is to disable Ukraine’s power system via the same means as last year, Galushchenko said in an emailed statement. 

“Russia’s missiles are not facing delays like military aid packages to our state. Shahed drones don’t have indecision like some politicians,” Zelenskiy said as he urged Ukraine’s allies not to delay with providing weapons, which will in turn help protect citizens.

The hours-long loss of power connection at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant highlighted “ever-present dangers to nuclear safety and security” from the two-year war, said Rafael Grossi, director general of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency.  

The off-site power situation at the facility has repeatedly “been hanging by a thread,” Grossi said in a statement on the agency’s website. 

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, was left almost completely without power after more than 15 strikes on energy facilities, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram. Nearly 700,000 households were without electricity. 

Odesa on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast faced emergency blackouts due to the scale of damage. Critical infrastructure was also hit in Vinnytsya and Lviv regions and in Kryvyi Rih and Zaporizhzhia, according to statements by regional governors. 

At least two people were killed and eight wounded in the western city of Khmelnytskyi and another two in Ivano-Frankivsk in the attacks, the Interior Ministry said. Six people were injured and three are missing in Zaporizhzhia, where missiles struck a residential neighborhood. 

The Dnipro hydro power plant in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s largest, was also targeted, causing a fire and destroying one of the dam’s supports, Ukrhydroenergo CEO Ihor Syrota, whose state-owned company operates all hydroelectric facilities in Ukraine, said in a video interview to Radio Liberty. The plant’s generating capacity was seriously damaged but there’s no immediate risk of flooding, he said. 

Thermal power plants run by the energy producer DTEK were seriously damaged, the company said in a statement. State-run Naftogaz said some of its equipment was damaged. 

Friday’s attacks came a day after Kremlin forces targeted Kyiv with at least 31 missiles, the first large-scale strike on Ukraine’s capital since February, and less than a week after Russian President Vladimir Putin was re-elected. 

The barrage directed at Kyiv included 29 cruise missiles and two ballistic rockets, Ukrainian Air Forces commander Mykola Oleshchuk said Thursday on Telegram. Air defence downed all the missiles and no fatalities were reported. BLOOMBERG