{"id":133741,"date":"2024-09-16T07:56:22","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T04:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/as-biden-deliberates-ukraines-nuclear-plants-are-increasingly-at-risk\/"},"modified":"2024-09-16T07:56:22","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T04:56:22","slug":"as-biden-deliberates-ukraines-nuclear-plants-are-increasingly-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/news\/as-biden-deliberates-ukraines-nuclear-plants-are-increasingly-at-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"As Biden deliberates, Ukraine\u2019s nuclear plants are increasingly at risk"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\" data-trp-original-action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133741\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"trp-form-language\" value=\"en\"\/><\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\n<p>As the U.S. ponders loosening some of the restrictions on Ukraine\u2019s use of Western-supplied long-range missiles to allow for the targeting of airfields and missile launch sites deeper inside Russia, Ukraine remains on tenterhooks. As it stands, Washington doesn\u2019t appear ready to take the gloves off entirely and allow Ukraine to target Russia\u2019s airfields with long-range U.S. missiles quite yet \u2014 though it may withdraw restrictions on the U.K.\u2019s Storm Shadows, which use U.S. technology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to see a more forthright position coming from the Biden administration that says there\u2019s no reason why Ukraine shouldn\u2019t be fighting back,\u201d former U.S. envoy to NATO Kurt Volker told Politico. \u201cRussia\u2019s the one attacking Ukraine from all these facilities across Russia. There\u2019s no reason for there to be a sanctuary. But I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to see Biden authorizing the use of U.S. missiles to strike at Russian airfields, although the British might be allowed to proceed without U.S. objection,\u201d he added. \u201cThat won\u2019t be enough.\u201d And if that\u2019s really the outcome of these weeks-long intense negotiations, Ukraine\u2019s energy officials will be among those most alarmed.<\/p>\n<p>They fear this coming winter may prove to be a breaking point for Ukraine in the energy war. And that\u2019s largely because Russian commanders are adapting their airstrike tactics, having learned from their previous failed bombing campaign to collapse the country\u2019s energy system \u2014 and the recent shipments of Iran\u2019s Fath-360 close-range ballistic missiles to Russia will help them do so.<\/p>\n<p>Ukrainian officials expect Russia will use these missiles, which have a range limit of 120 kilometers, to complement their glide bombs in targeting logistics and communications hubs and ammunition depots in the rear of Ukraine\u2019s front lines. That, in turn, will free Russia up to concentrate its own longer-range missiles on civilian infrastructure \u2014 particularly the energy system in a bid to break it.<\/p>\n<p>Stuck in the crosshairs are key substations feeding high voltage electricity to Ukraine\u2019s still functioning nuclear power stations in Rivne, Khmelnytskyi and Yuzhnoukrainsk in southern Ukraine. Take these substations out and the reactors have to be shut down rapidly, or else it could provoke a \u201cnuclear incident,\u201d energy expert Mykhailo Gonchar told POLITICO. And \u201cthat\u2019s what the Russians are aiming to do \u2014 hit the key substations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Currently, 55 percent of Ukraine\u2019s energy is generated by its three operating nuclear power stations \u2014 the one in Zaporizhzhia, which is the largest nuclear plant in Europe, was captured by Russia in 2022 and has largely been shut down. Russian missile and drone strikes have destroyed 9 gigawatts of the country\u2019s electrical generating capacity \u2014 that\u2019s half of the peak winter consumption \u2014 with 80 percent of thermal generation from coal- and gas-fired power plants and a third of hydroelectric production capacity wiped out by bombing.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Russia tried to isolate these nuclear power plants, focusing on degrading Ukraine\u2019s energy transmission. It targeted distribution to consumers and businesses but was met with characteristic Ukrainian ingenuity and confounded by improvised repairs and rerouting. Paralyze the three nuclear power stations, though, and it\u2019s game over for Ukraine in the energy war , diminishing its war-fighting capacity, crashing the economy and weakening its position if peace negotiations do ever commence.<\/p>\n<p>And according to officials in Kyiv, it\u2019s the fear of this happening that\u2019s been one of the factors driving the Biden administration to reconsider the restrictions, including on U.S. ATACMS and British Storm Shadows. Washington sat up when Russian airstrikes started targeting the main substations feeding operational electricity to the nuclear power plants in late August. \u201cThat concentrated minds,\u201d said one Ukrainian official who asked not to be identified in order to speak freely.<\/p>\n<p>Based on a study by Gonchar\u2019s Center for Global Studies that was shared with NATO, a Russian strike on Aug. 26 signaled this switch in tactics. It was massive \u2014 one of the biggest airstrikes since the start of the war almost three years ago \u2014 and made combined use of both Iranian-supplied Shahed drones and Russian-made cruise and ballistic missiles. Russia launched 109 drones that day, in an offensive orchestrated to tie up Ukrainian air defenses, while strategic Russian bombers and MiG-31K fighters flying from airfields inside Russia launched 127 cruise and ballistic missiles targeting the nuclear power plants\u2019 electricity-feeding substations. Ukrainian air defenses had success in intercepting them but, nonetheless, there were 32 hits causing significant damage.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/russia-ukraine-nuclear-plants-energy-war-joe-biden-united-states-nato\/\">Read more&gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/russia-ukraine-nuclear-plants-energy-war-joe-biden-united-states-nato\/\">Politico<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/environmental-news-en\/as-biden-deliberates-ukraines-nuclear-plants-are-increasingly-at-risk\/\">As Biden deliberates, Ukraine\u2019s nuclear plants are increasingly at risk<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[800,575,16105],"class_list":["post-133741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-biden","tag-environmental-news-en","tag-ukraines-nuclear-plants"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}