Ukraine Minister Says Russia Uses Energy As a Weapon of War

SUBSCRIBER+EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW — Ukraine was hit by a fresh round of Russian missile attacks Thursday, strikes that targeted and damaged the country’s power grid infrastructure. The Trypilska Thermal Power Plant, the largest in the Kyiv region, was destroyed, and explosions were reported in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and western Lviv regions. A day earlier, Russian missile and drone attacks damaged Ukrainian energy facilities in the Black Sea regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv. Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko said the attacks were part of a Kremlin effort to to cripple the country’s energy capabilities.

Earlier this week, concerns spiked about perhaps the most critical of all elements of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure after three drones detonated at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in eastern Ukraine, the largest such plant in all of Europe. Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that while there were “no indications of damage to critical nuclear safety or security systems,” this was the first time the facility had been directly targeted since November 2022. “Such reckless attacks significantly increase the risk of a major nuclear accident and must be stopped immediately,” Grossi warned.