The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Andriy Sibyga, said today that Russia plans to strike Ukrainian nuclear facilities before the start of winter, and called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Ukraine's allies to establish permanent missions to monitor the nuclear power plants in the country, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
"According to Ukrainian intelligence, the Kremlin is preparing strikes on sites critical to Ukrainian nuclear energy before winter," Sibyga wrote in "X". "In particular, this applies to open switchgear in (nuclear power plants and) and transmission substations, which are critical to the safe operation of nuclear power,", he added.
The Ukrainian foreign minister did not specify why Kiev believes that the Kremlin is preparing such strikes.
Moscow and the IAEA have not yet responded to Reuters requests for comment.
The head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi's office Andriy Yermak, for his part, called for a quick global response to the alleged threat of a Russian strike against a nuclear facility.
"This is preparation for a possible nuclear disaster scenario. Russia is a terrorist," Ermak wrote on his Telegram channel.
"They must be stopped here and now. The countries of the West and the Global South must react sharply to preparations for terror, Ermak added.
Russia has been waging a military campaign of military strikes against Ukraine's power grid since the fall of 2022, after invading the country in February of that year, Reuters notes.
The attacks damaged or destroyed most of Ukraine's thermal power generation facilities. Sometimes hydroelectric plants are also hit, but nuclear facilities controlled by Kiev have not been targeted so far.
Ukraine has previously accused Russia of nuclear blackmail after Russian forces occupied the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in March 2022, at the start of the invasion. For its part, Moscow denies such claims.
The two sides have repeatedly accused each other of shelling areas near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has several times cut power lines to Europe's largest nuclear power plant, raising the possibility of blackouts that could led to a nuclear accident, notes Reuters.
IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi has visited both Ukraine and Russia on several occasions since the outbreak of war and has urged both countries not to engage in fighting near nuclear facilities.
"I think there is always a risk when there is a possibility of an attack on a nuclear power plant," he said during a visit to Kiev earlier this month.