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KIIV, Ukraine (AP) – Renewed Moscow attacks against Ukrainian force infrastructure this winter have hooked the breach of the Ukraine force of the force of Ukraine to protect the bunnings of maximum critical force of the country near nuclear sites.
Despite more than a year of warnings that the sites were vulnerable to potential Russian attacks, the Energy Ministry failed to act swiftly, current and former Ukrainian officials in Kyiv told The 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 switchyards that handle electrical routing from nuclear power plants are a vital component of Ukraine’s nuclear energy infrastructure — powering homes, schools, hospitals and other critical civilian infrastructure,” said Marcy R. Fowler, head of the office for research and analysis at Open Nuclear Network, a program of the U.S.-based NGO PAX sapiens that focuses on reducing nuclear risk.
“Given the upper dependence of Ukraine with respect to nuclear energy, army attacks opposed to those switching stations would be devastating, they would have serious repercussions on civil life and would compromise the resistance of the power network,” said -ali.
Only in the fall, after Ukrainian intelligence agencies warned of potential Russian strikes targeting the nuclear switchyards, was action taken to begin building protection — far too late in the event of an attack, analysts said.
“If two (nuclear gardens) are affected, we are not powered for a minimum of 30 to 36 hours, and there will be a massive limitation of the energy source for at least 3 weeks, the case,” said Oleksandr Kharchenko, an expert on Ukraine’s energy industry.
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 roads also have a critical function at the moment: the delivery of electricity to the nuclear force plants from the network outside the site that is essential to cool their reactors and spend fuel. An interruption can potentially explain a catastrophe, the United Nations nuclear firm has warned since Russian attacks began in August.
And while Ukraine nuclear force plants have backup emergency systems, “they are designed to provide transitional support,” Fowler said. “Without the functional switches, the backup systems by themselves would not be enough to maintain operations or save the safety dangers a prolonged interruption. “
Lawmakers cited failing to protect those sites in a settlement last month, calling for the removal of Energy Minister Herman Hauschenko. The list of complaints, which has also censured Hauschenko for alleged systematic corruption and insufficient oversight in the electricity sector, will have to be chosen through parliament.
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Haluschenko maintained at a news conference Tuesday the allegations were “a manipulation” and that fortifications for the electrical grid were “done.” But he would not answer direct questions about whether Ukraine’s nuclear switchyards in particular were protected.
Russian attacks in November and December approached dangerously to the country’s nuclear force plants, which d the nine operational reactors to electricity production. The attacks did not reach the nuclear roads at approximately one kilometer (half a million) of the reactor sites, but they have prolonged alarmingly.
The task of building protections for power transmission substations, whether nuclear and non-nuclear, gave the impression of state-owned and personal enterprises, the Supervising Ministry of Energy.
Three layers of fortifications were ordered: sandbags followed through cement barricades capable of resisting drone attacks and, maximum and less complete structures, iron and steel.
Following a government decree in July 2023, many state-owned energy corporations began contracting without delay to build first-and-moment layer fortifications for their critical peak electrical power facilities. In the spring of 2024, the government repeated the pressing appeal to get the job done.
However, nuclear switches, the duty of the State of the State of Ukraine Energoatom, made contracts to build concrete fortifications of the layer of the moment in this autumn. By then, the Ukrenergo State Force Company, which manages high-voltage substations that transmit power from nuclear reactors to the grid, had already completed 90% of its 43 sites.
The bidding process for two nuclear plants — in Khmelnytskyi and Mykolaiv — only started in early October, according to documents seen by the AP. The tender for the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant was even later, at the end of November.
The structure is not finalized before 2026, according to contract documents.
The considerations on the delays were raised several times the closed doors meetings and the letters sent to the power managers in the year beyond the year, they said 3 representatives of existing and previous APs, which speak under the anonymity of Canopy Canopy for Canopy for Talk about the fight of the feet through the Ministry of the Ministry of Energy.
“We have officially written to the Ministry of Energy several times that indicate this challenge in the last 12 to 14 months,” said Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, former head of Ukrenerg, who was reviewed in September and blamed Mess Ups to protect the energy infrastructure, a resolution widely criticized as politically motivated.
Energy Minister Haluschenko has guaranteed the stage is low and has prioritized other projects, adding lobbying for parliamentary approval for the structure of beloved nuclear reactors that take a decade to build.
The western partners of Ukraine have also been informed several times that “all” critical infrastructure has been protected, according to two Western diplomats with wisdom wisdom aid in the country’s electricity sector, which spoke under the canopy of anonymity to talk about the question about the question .
Energoatom responded to requests for comments from the AP on delays, which causes the sensitivity of the problem.
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 have an effect on the stability of the network and compromise the reliability of power outside the site, creating dangers for nuclear safety,” said Grossi, warning of similar considerations in the Zaporizhzhia plant of Russian property, the largest in Europe.
The presence of the IAEA inspection teams led some in the Ukrainian government to believe the country’s nuclear sites were off-limits for Russian attacks, said a senior Ukrainian official who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the delays.
But it turned out to be a primary calculation error.
“Why didn’t they react?” Kudrytskyi, the former Ukrenergo director, said of the Energy Ministry’s failure to quickly respond to the series of warnings. “I don’t have an answer to that.”
AP journalists David Rising in Bangkok and Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv contributed to this report.
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