NYT: Russia's military is trying to destroy Ukraine's nuclear power plants

Russia strikes on critical substations connected to Ukrainian nuclear power plants in an attempt to stop them. These strikes threaten catastrophe, writes The New York Times, citing experts.

Russia has been attacking Ukraine's energy sector since the early days of the war. So far, these attacks have mainly targeted thermal and hydroelectric plants and their transmission facilities. However, the Ukrainian state's energy system has not collapsed, mainly because most of its electricity production depends on nuclear power plants, which have so far not been directly attacked, the paper said.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), since August, the Russians have been trying to strike power distribution substations connected to nuclear power plants to deprive Ukraine of its last major power generation capacity. According to Sean Burney, a nuclear expert at "Greenpeace” - Ukraine, nuclear power plant substations not only transmit the energy produced by the nuclear reactors to the grid, but also supply electricity needed to cool the reactors and the spent fuel back to them.

"The loss of the cooling function of one or more reactors will inevitably lead to a meltdown of nuclear fuel and a large-scale release of radiation," Greenpeace” warns.

UN experts issued a similar warning in a statement released on Monday. They said that "further failures in Ukraine's power system could lead to power outages, which would increase the risk that operating nuclear reactors would lose access to the grid to power their safety systems.”. The statement said such an event could lead to a major nuclear disaster.

Kiev is trying to convince the IAEA to send its permanent staff to these substations in the hope that their presence will deter Moscow from attacks. The Russian Federation must maintain good relations with the organization in order to continue exporting its nuclear energy technologies, the newspaper added.

However, the IAEA notes that it cannot risk the safety of its personnel. Therefore, the agency conducted only one monitoring mission and no additional visits were reported.