Russia ‘endangers Europe’ after striking substations at two Ukraine nuclear plants

 Ukraine accused Russia of “deliberately endangering nuclear safety in Europe” after strikes on power substations supplying two major nuclear plants.

Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister, called for an urgent meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors after attacks struck substations attached to the Khmelnytskyi and Rivne nuclear power plants.

“These were not accidental but well-planned strikes,” Mr Sybiha said on X, urging “all states that value nuclear safety, particularly China and India, to demand Russia stop reckless attacks on nuclear energy that risk a catastrophic incident”.

Kyiv has consistently pointed the finger at Russia for targeting nuclear facilities and risking catastrophe, most recently at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which was forced to rely on back-up diesel generators for a month recently after it was severed from Ukraine’s electrical grid.

Power was still cut off across much of the country for between eight and 16 hours on Sunday while repairs were carried out as Svitlana Grynchuk, Ukraine’s energy minister, said the attacks had been “one of the most difficult nights of the entire full-scale war”.

In tit-for-tat Ukrainian strikes across Russian border regions, local authorities said that more than 20,000 people in Belgorod had been left without power while a drone strike on Voronezh caused localised blackouts and heating cuts.

In a further blow to Ukraine, more than $5bn (£4bn) in American weapons destined for Nato partners and Ukraine has been caught in limbo by the US government shutdown in Washington.

Deliveries of weapons to allies such as Denmark, Croatia and Poland – shipments of advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles (Amraam), Aegis combat systems and Himars light multiple rocket launchers among others – have reportedly been postponed due to the deadlock.

It is not clear where all of the shipments were ultimately bound, but arms transfers to Nato members are often routed to bolster Ukraine’s defences.

The Telegraph has approached the US department of state for comment.

In October, a Ukrainian government source told The Telegraph that Kyiv feared American weapon shipments could be delayed in reaching the battlefield because of the shutdown.

The spectre of a weapons bottleneck will be a huge concern for Kyiv and its allies amid the worrying backdrop of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure being targeted by large-scale Russian attacks.

Also on Sunday, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said that he was willing to meet with Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, telling Russia’s state RIA Novosti that the pair “understand the need for regular communication” after aborted talks last month.

“That is why we communicate by telephone and are ready to hold face-to-face meetings when necessary,” he added.

He had been the subject of rumours of a rift with Vladimir Putin after the Russian daily Kommersant alleged that Mr Lavrov had been “deliberately absent” from a recent key security council meeting.

Mr Lavrov, who has been foreign minister for more than 21 years, was supposedly chastised after a tense phone call with Mr Rubio which some said resulted in the abrupt shelving of a planned summit between the US and Russian leaders in Budapest.

Moscow promptly stepped in to deny the rumours of internal strife, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters on Friday that there was “nothing true” in them and confirming that Mr Lavrov would continue to serve as foreign minister.