Ukraine war briefing: Attack cutting power to Chornobyl nuclear plant a ‘global threat’, says Zelenskyy

Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of posing a threat to global security, after Kyiv said a Russian shelling attack cut power to the defunct Chornobyl nuclear plant. “Every day that Russia prolongs the war, refuses to implement a full and reliable ceasefire, and continues striking all objects of our energy infrastructure – including those critical to the safety of nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities – is a global threat,” the Ukrainian president said. The site of Ukraine’s defunct nuclear plant – partially destroyed in a 1986 meltdown – lost power on Wednesday after Russia shelled a nearby substation, Kyiv said.

The UN’s atomic energy watchdog said the blackout affected Chornobyl’s confinement structure housing the plant’s damaged reactor core, and that two emergency diesel generators were now supplying it with electricity.

The incident comes eight days after the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine also lost power. Russia has been accused of deliberately sabotaging the last remaining power line into the nuclear plant, after satellite imagery of the damaged area showed no sign of Ukrainian shelling that Moscow claimed was preventing a repair. Outside power, normally used for cooling, has now been down for a record eight days, forcing the Russian operators of the plant in occupied Ukraine to rely on back-up diesel generators to avoid a meltdown of its six reactor cores.

The United States will provide Ukraine with intelligence for long-range missile strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure, the Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported on Wednesday, as it weighs whether to send Kyiv weapons that could put more targets within range. The US has long been sharing intelligence with Kyiv but the Journal reported that the new development would make it easier for Ukraine to hit refineries, pipelines, power stations and other infrastructure with the aim of depriving the Kremlin of revenue and oil. US officials were also asking Nato allies to provide similar support, according to the newspaper.

All European countries were affected by the “Russian hybrid war”, whether through drone incursions or sabotage, Denmark’s prime minister has told an EU summit. “I hope that everybody recognises now that there is a hybrid war, and one day it’s Poland, the other day it’s Denmark, and next week it will probably be somewhere else that we see sabotage or … drones flying,” Mette Frederiksen told reporters on Wednesday. “I think we are in the most difficult and dangerous situation since the second world war.”

The European Commission president said she saw a pattern, citing drones in Poland and the violation of Estonian airspace by Russian fighter jets. “This pattern is coming from Russia, in so far as Russia tries to test us,” Ursula von der Leyen said. In a paper to European capitals before Wednesday’s meeting, the commission said the EU needed to pursue two plans with “special urgency”: a “drone wall” to detect, track and shoot down such aircraft and a broader system to defend the EU’s eastern borders – on land, in the air and at sea – known as eastern flank watch.

G7 finance ministers pledged on Wednesday to take aim at those who are continuing to step up purchases of Russian oil, since Moscow’s fullscale invasion of Ukraine. In a statement after a virtual meeting, officials from the Group of Seven advanced economies – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States – agreed it was time to “maximise pressure on Russia’s oil exports.” The group said it was also giving “serious consideration to trade measures and other restrictions on countries and entities that are helping finance Russia’s war efforts, including on refined products sourced from Russian oil.”

The French military has detained two people after boarding an oil tanker named on a list of Russia’s “shadow fleet” vessels and suspected of being a launchpad for mystery drone flights that forced the closure of airports in Denmark last week. French prosecutors said an investigation was taking place after the crew’s “failure to justify the nationality of the vessel” and “refusal to cooperate”. Photos showed navy personnel on the deck of the tanker, known as the Boracay, which has used numerous identities and was one of four Russia-linked vessels in the seas near Denmark at the time of the drone sightings on 22 and 24 September, which so far have not been fully explained. The Kremlin said it had no information about the tanker or the incident when asked.