Ukraine war briefing: Russian attacks on substations are ‘nuclear terrorism’, says Ukraine

Ukraine’s foreign ministry has denounced what it described as Russian attacks on substations critical to supplying external power for Ukraine’s nuclear power stations. Russia has carried out “targeted strikes on such substations”, a ministry statement issued late on Friday said. “Deliberate strikes on civilian energy facilities that directly affect the safe operation of nuclear installations bear the hallmarks of nuclear terrorism and constitute a grave violation of international humanitarian law,” it added.

The foreign ministry referred to a statement issued on Thursday by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, reporting military activity “that has led to damage to substations critical to nuclear safety and security in Ukraine”. The IAEA statement reported incidents near two nuclear plants – South Ukraine and Khmelnitskyi – that led to each plant losing access to an external power line. A third station at Rivne had been forced to reduce power at two of its four reactors, the IAEA statement adds. It gave no indication of which side might have been behind the incidents.

Civilian life on the frontlines in Ukraine is becoming a battle for survival, with attacks on energy infrastructure threatening to spark a major winter crisis, the UN warned Friday. Matthias Schmale, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, said civilians were increasingly bearing the brunt with the approach of the fourth winter since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

G7 energy ministers issued a joint statement on Friday to condemn Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy system, and said the group of countries will work to support Ukraine’s energy needs. “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 ministers said.

Ukraine landed special forces to fight in embattled parts of the eastern city of Pokrovsk earlier this week, just as Russia said it had surrounded Kyiv’s forces in the area, two Ukrainian military sources said on Friday. The operation shows how Ukraine is battling to stabilise the situation in the strategically important city after scores of Russian troops breached its perimeter this month. Russia’s capture of Pokrovsk, an important road and rail hub, could enable further advances into the eastern Donetsk region, which Russia aims to fully occupy. Moscow’s military has been inching forward towards Pokrovsk for over a year.

Russian air defences downed three Ukrainian drones headed for Moscow, the city’s mayor said early on Saturday. Sergei Sobyanin, writing on Telegram, said specialists were examining fragments of the drones where they had fallen. Russia’s defence ministry had earlier reported that 38 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted and destroyed in a three-hour period over two regions in southern Russia and over Crimea.

Flights were suspended for almost two hours at Berlin’s Brandenburg airport on Friday due to sightings of unidentified drones, the latest in a series of similar scares across Europe. Take-offs and landings were suspended between 8.08pm and 9.58pm and a “whole series of flights” were diverted to other German cities during the closure, an airport spokesman said. Airports in Denmark, Norway and Poland have also recently suspended flights due to unidentified drones, while Romania and Estonia have pointed the finger at Russia, which has brushed off the allegations. Germany has similarly pointed the finger at Moscow.