Russian attacks on energy infrastructure in western Ukraine have left hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without power as of Thursday as nuclear power plants are curbing generation because of damaged transmission lines.
Damage to power lines has forced nuclear power plants, which generate more than half of the country’s electricity, to reduce production, a representative of Ukraine’s national nuclear energy company Energoatom told Reuters today.
Earlier this week, Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that two Ukrainian nuclear power plants have been operating at reduced capacity for the past ten days after a military attack damaged an electrical substation critical for nuclear safety and security.
Russia and Ukraine have intensified attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure in recent weeks, with Russia targeting Ukrainian power and gas supply and Ukraine hitting Russian refineries, oil depots, and export facilities.
Ukraine has recently moved to secure U.S. LNG supply for the winter by both imports via Greece and Lithuania.
Meanwhile, U.S. Pentagon officials are visiting Kyiv and meeting with Zelenskyy on Thursday to “discuss efforts to end the war.”
The U.S. and Russia have reportedly drafted a plan to end the war, which includes Ukraine conceding territory. Reports of the plan, said to be devised by U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev, have not been either confirmed or denied by the U.S. or Russia.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X on Thursday that “Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas. And achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions. That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict.”
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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