Russia Bombs Khmelnitskyi Nuclear Power Plant

With this act Russia again confirms its status as a terrorist state.

On 25 October, the Russian Air Force carried out another attack on Ukraine using attack drones. This time all UAVs were moving in the direction of the Khmelnytskyi region: the towns of Slavuta and Netishyn - the latter settlement is only a couple of kilometres away from the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant - were under attack. Hundreds of civilian infrastructure objects were damaged by the drone's debris, including the administrative premises of the Nuclear Power Plant. 18 civilians were injured, 2 of them are in a serious condition. Only the quality work of the air defence system prevented the UAV from hitting KNPP directly.

Russia has consistently scaled nuclear terror, an approach it has adopted in the midst of ongoing military failures. The attempted assault on Avdeevka brought the Russians nothing but huge losses. Putin is thus escalating the nuclear terror of Ukraine and its allies with a blatant bombardment of the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant - this exactly replicates the blitzkrieg tactics of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which was occupied in the first days after the war of Invasion. Russia's continued nuclear terror is bringing millions of people to the brink of nuclear catastrophe and dramatically worsening the nuclear safety situation in Ukraine. In particular, the IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has sharply criticised the above incident.

The continued bombardment of nuclear power plants in Ukraine is yet another argument to recognise Russia as a terrorist state at the level of international parliaments. Khmelnytskyi NPP is relatively close to the EU border with Ukraine. In case an explosive-laden drone hits the NPP reactor, millions of people will be affected not only in Ukraine but also in Europe. This is Putin's deliberate strategy to increase nuclear blackmail: if the Kremlin is not stopped, its provocations will have tragic consequences for the whole world. Sanctions and complete international isolation of the Russian Federation should be the logical response to its nuclear terror.