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KIIV, Ukraine (AP) — Moscow renewed targeted attacks on Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure this winter by hanging from Ukraine’s energy ministry to protect maximum critical power amenities in the country near nuclear sites.
Despite more than a year of warnings that the sites were vulnerable to possible Russian attacks, the Ministry of Energy acted quickly, the existing and previous Ukrainian officials of kyiv to Associated Press.
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Two years of punishing Russian moves on its power grid have left Ukraine dependent on nuclear force for more than part of its electricity production. Unprotected nuclear switches are vulnerable located outside the gates, the perimeters of its 3 operational nuclear power plants, which are supposed to transmit the power of the reactors to the rest of the country.
“The communicators that manage the electrical routing of the plants of the nuclear force are a detail of the infrastructure of the nuclear force of Ukraine: houses, schools, hospitals and other critical civil infrastructure,” said Marcy R. Fowler, head of the office Open research and analysis. »Nuclear Network, an NGO program founded in the United States Pax Sapiens that focuses on reducing nuclear risk.
“Given Ukraine’s increased dependence on nuclear power, army attacks opposed to those lands would have an effect on civilian life and would have an effect on civilian life and compress the resilience of the power grid. “saying.
Only in autumn, after Ukrainian intelligence agencies warned about possible Russian movements aimed at nuclear lands, it was needed to begin to protect the structure, too past due to an attack, analysts said.
“If two (nuclear switchyards) are hit, we are out of supply for a minimum of 30 to 36 hours, and there will be a huge limitation on energy supply for at least three weeks, best-case scenario,” said Oleksandr Kharchenko, a Ukrainian energy industry expert.
He said it would take three to five weeks to transport and install new equipment, a miserable scenario for Ukraine’s people during the bitterly cold winter months.
Even more worrying, nuclear switchyards also have a second critical function: delivering electricity to nuclear plants from the offsite grid that is essential to cooling their reactors and spent fuel. A disruption could potentially spell disaster, the U.N. nuclear agency has repeatedly warned since the Russian attacks began in August.
And while Ukraine’s nuclear power plants have emergency emergency systems, “they are designed to provide transient support,” Fowler said. “Without functional switches, protecting systems alone would not be enough to maintain operations or spare safety hazards from widespread failure. “
Lawmakers cited not having been in a solution last month, calling for the removal of Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko. The list of complaints, which also censured Haluschenko for alleged systematic corruption and insufficient oversight of the power sector.
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Hauschenko held at a press convention on Tuesday that the accusations were “handling” and that the fortifications for the electric power network were “made. ” But it would not respond directly on whether the Ukrainian nuclear switches in specific were protected.
Russian attacks in November and December have dangerously approach the country’s nuclear force plants, which makes the nine operational reactors reduce force generation. The attacks did not hit nuclear routes at approximately one kilometer (half mile) of the reactor sites, but was alarmingly extended.
The task of construction protections for energy transmission substations, whether nuclear and non -nuclear, gave the impression of state and personal companies, the Supervisor Ministry of Energy.
Three layers of fortifications were ordered: sandbags followed through cement barricades capable of resisting attacks of unmanned airplanes and, the most expensive and less complete, fortified iron and steel structures.
After a government decree in July 2023, many state energy corporations began to contract without delay to build fortifications of first and time layers for their maximum critical electricity facilities. In the spring of 2024, the Government repeated the pressing appeal to do the job.
But nuclear switches, under the duty of Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear corporation, made contracts to build fortifications in the concrete of the second layer until this fall. The nuclear reactor power grid had already completed 90% of its 43 sites.
The tfinisher procedure for two nuclear power plants, in Khmelnytskyi and Mykolavi, began in early October, according to documents seen through the AP. The call to the tfinishers for the Rivne nuclear force plant even later, at the end of November.
Construction is not expected to be completed until 2026, the contract documents said.
Concerns have been raised about delays in closed door meetings and letters sent to energy officials during the year beyond the year, 3 existing and previous officials of the AP said, speaking under condition of anonymity to talk about the fight of the Ministry of Energy.
“We wrote officially to the Energy Ministry several times stating this problem over the last 12 to 14 months,” said Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the former head of Ukrenergo, who was fired in September and blamed for the failures to protect the energy infrastructure — a move widely criticized as politically motivated.
The Minister of Energy, Hauschenko, guaranteed that the scenario was low and prioritized other projects, in specific lobbying for parliamentary approval for the structure of the dear nuclear reactors that take a construction of up to a decade.
Ukraine’s Western partners have also been informed that “all” critical infrastructure has been protected, according to two Western diplomats with Western monetary aid to the country’s electricity sector, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.
Energoatom did not respond to requests for comment from the AP about the delays, citing the sensitivity of the issue.
During the summer and in December, Ukraine recruited the alarm worldwide on possible Russian attacks aimed at nuclear infrastructure and pledged nuclear safety. In mid -December, he convened an ordinary consultation of the International Atomic Energy Agency after the attacks a month above, the electrical substations considered very important for Ukraine nuclear safety, expanding the option of a nuclear emergency.
The U. N. nuclear firm sent groups in December to force substations at nuclear power plants in Khmelnytskyi, Rivne and southern Ukraine to document injuries and gather evidence “highlighting vulnerabilities in the force network as a result of the attacks,” the firm’s director-general, Rafael Grossi. , he said in A in January.
“These attacks impact grid stability and jeopardize the reliability of the off-site power supply, creating risks to nuclear safety,” Grossi said, warning of similar concerns at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest.
The presence of the IEA inspection groups led some in the Ukrainian government to the country’s nuclear sites were prohibited for Russian attacks, said a senior Ukrainian official asked for anonymity to speak frankly.
But it turned out to be a primary calculation error.
“Why didn’t they react?” Kudrytskyi, former director of Ukrenergo, said of the Energy Ministry’s inability to respond temporarily to the precautionary series. “I don’t have an answer to this. “
AP Newshounds of AP David Rising in Bangkok and Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv contributed to this report.
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