Russia destroyed almost all of our heat generation, the NPPs are under threat, Zelenskyy tells EU

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not rule out that after strikes on thermal power generation, Russia will start striking at the infrastructure of nuclear plants, he said during a speech at a special meeting of the European Council on Wednesday.

"Russia has already destroyed almost all of our thermal power generation. Dams and equipment of hydroelectric power plants, as well as gas infrastructure are under terrorist attacks. Russia is not giving up on radiation blackmail and, in particular, continues to brutally play with the safety of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant. We do not rule out that the infrastructure of our other nuclear power plants and distribution networks are also under threat from Russian terror," said the head of state.

He hopes that Western partners will not allow this and will provide Ukraine with additional air defense systems.

"This can only be stopped by air defense – by specific systems such as Patriot, IRIS-T, SAMP-T, NASAMS… Systems that you have. They are needed in Ukraine right now – needed to stop Putin from relying on terrorist methods. And this is your security need as well," he said, addressing the leaders of the European Union.

Since March 2024, Russia has carried out three massive strikes on Ukraine's energy system, knocking out up to 7 GW of electricity generation capacity.

As a result of the strikes, the Dnipro HPP in Zaporizhzhya, the Kharkiv CHPP-5, the Zmiyiv and Trypillia TPPs of the Centrenergo company, and the Burshtyn and Ladyzhyn TPPs of the DTEK company were destroyed.

Energy Minister German Halushchenko said that Ukrainians should stock up on generators, power banks and prepare for any scenarios in the spring and summer.