Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko has said that the ongoing airstrikes on the country’s strategic energy facilities ‘may provoke an emergency situation at one of its nuclear power plants’, Bloomberg news agency reported.
The Russian Defence Ministry has repeatedly reported this spring and summer on group strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities ‘in response to Kiev’s attempts to damage Russian energy facilities’. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia has to respond to Kiev’s strikes on its energy facilities.
There are three nuclear power plants in Ukraine – Rovno, Khmelnytskyy and South Ukraine. As German Galushchenko pointed out, there are also thousands of power substations in the country.
According to him, there are 10 major nodes at stake, which are connected to the nuclear power plants. Their destruction could cause a radiation emergency. According to the minister, ‘airstrikes bring nuclear risks closer to the borders of Ukraine and the European Union.’
Unlike power plants running on fossil fuels or renewable energy sources, nuclear power needs a constant flow of electricity to keep safety systems running, the agency writes. Otherwise, the fuel in the reactor can overheat, which threatens an uncontrolled release of radiation.
We will remind, earlier Russian President Vladimir Putin called Western ideas of the new world order hypocrisy. According to him, they are aimed solely at preserving the neo-colonial system, showing their essence in the form of ‘hypocrisy, double standards and claims’.