Zelensky: “Russia has destroyed almost all thermal energy in Ukraine. Nuclear power plants are under threat”
18 April 2024 11:08
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Russia has destroyed almost all thermal power in Ukraine and is likely to target Ukrainian nuclear power plants. He said this during a video speech at a meeting of the European Council, Komersant ukrainskyi 
citing Interfax-Ukraine.
“Russia has already destroyed almost all of our thermal energy. Dams and equipment of hydroelectric power plants, as well as gas infrastructure, are subject to terrorist attacks. Russia is not giving up on radiation blackmail and, in particular, continues to play cruelly with the safety of the Zaporizhzhya NPP. We do not rule out that the infrastructure of our other nuclear power plants and distribution networks is also under threat from Russian terror,”
– the President said.
He emphasised that Russian shelling of Ukrainian cities could be stopped only by air defence systems of our European partners.
“Only air defence systems can stop this – specific systems such as Patriot, Iris-T, Samp-T, Nasams. Systems that you have. Ukraine needs them right now – they are needed to prevent Putin from using terrorist methods,”
– zelenskyy said.
According to him, today the Russian army has an absolute advantage over the Ukrainian army in the weapons component:
“And it is thanks to this strength – in artillery, in equipment, in the ability to operate in the sky – that they put pressure on us at the front and are gradually moving. Putin now hopes that he will succeed in his counter-offensive, and the only root of this hope is the lack of weapons among our soldiers.”
The President of Ukraine called on European partners to accelerate the implementation of the initiatives they have undertaken. This includes the promised million of ammunition.
“Unfortunately, we have not yet seen a million artillery shells from the European Union, which have been talked about so much.” In addition, some other initiatives have not yet been fully implemented, and this primarily affects what our soldiers can use at the front and what they will unfortunately have to wait for. I ask you to accelerate the implementation of our agreements with you – both on the supply and joint production of weapons and ammunition, as well as on the financing of relevant projects,”
– volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
