Ukraine has accused Russia of routing its missiles to fly over nuclear power plants “every day”, a military tactic that heightens the risk of atomic accidents.
Ukrainian energy minister German Galushchenko told the Financial Times that Russian attacks had forced one plant into shutdown on August 26 after a substation was hit. Since then, he said, Russian missiles had increasingly flown over Ukraine’s three nuclear facilities, which generate almost 60 per cent of the country’s electricity.
“This is about three operating nuclear stations,” Galushchenko said, adding that while the facility that went into “emergency blackout” was in central Ukraine, the other two that have been targeted are much further west, near the border with the EU.