Ukraine accuses Russia of nuclear terrorism.

Ukraine destroyed an Oreshnik hypersonic missile. Ukraine fears for the safety of its nuclear power plants. All developments in the news blog.

Ukraine accused Russia on Friday of targeted attacks on substations crucial to its nuclear power plants. The Foreign Ministry in Kyiv said in a statement that this amounted to nuclear terrorism and constituted a serious violation of international humanitarian law.

The ministry referred to a statement issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday. The IAEA reported military activity that had caused damage to substations crucial for nuclear safety. The agency cited incidents near the South Ukraine and Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plants. Furthermore, the Rivne nuclear power plant had to reduce the output of two of its four reactors.

According to the mayor of Moscow, Russian air defenses shot down three Ukrainian drones heading for the Russian capital. Sergei Sobyanin further wrote on Telegram that specialists are now examining the drone wreckage at the crash sites. The Russian Defense Ministry had previously reported that 38 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted and destroyed within three hours over two regions in southern Russia and over Crimea, which Ukraine annexed in 2014.

Ukraine claims to have destroyed an Oreshnik missile during an intelligence operation inside Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the operation on Friday. According to Zelenskyy, the operation took place last summer. The strike by Ukrainian forces occurred at the Kapustin Yar test site in Astrakhan, Russia.

The medium-range ballistic missile has a range of up to 5,000 kilometers. Russian President Vladimir Putin first used the weapon last November in his war against Ukraine. At the time, Putin justified the attack by claiming it was in retaliation for Ukraine's use of British and American long-range missiles on Russian territory. He later threatened further attacks, including on "decision centers" in Kyiv, if such attacks continued.

He recently announced the deployment of the missile in Belarus. Putin stated that the "Oreshnik" could not be intercepted and possessed destructive power comparable to that of a nuclear weapon. Western experts, however, have questioned these claims.