{"id":704153,"date":"2026-01-18T11:50:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T11:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/704153\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T11:50:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T11:50:25","slug":"zelenskyy-says-russia-taking-aim-at-ukraines-nuclear-power-stations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/704153\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelenskyy says Russia taking aim at Ukraine’s nuclear power stations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Russia is readying itself to carry out strikes against Ukraine\u2019s nuclear power plants, in an attempt to freeze Kyiv into submission by rattling its energy grid.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian president says Russian strikes have intensified in recent weeks and are increasingly targeting energy sites, in a bid to directly increase civilian suffering, in the middle of winter.<\/p>\n

The repeated strikes are causing energy outages in multiple regions, with thousands of homes losing access to gas and electricity in the daily attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation in the energy system remains difficult, but we are doing everything we can to restore all services as quickly as possible,\u201d wrote Zelenskyy in a post on X.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy slammed Moscow for showing \u201cno willingness\u201d to end the war, despite ongoing peace efforts, led by the United States, as the war quickly approaches the beginning of its fifth year.<\/p>\n

\u201clast night, over 200 strike drones were launched against us. The Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi, and Odesa regions came under attack. Dozens of people have been injured, including a child. As of now, two people have been reported killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overnight Russian attacks have spiked in intensity in recent weeks, with barrages getting bigger, and the type of weaponry used getting stronger, inflicting more damage on targets Kyiv says are mainly civilian.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy says this week alone saw more than 1,300 drone attacks, over 1,000 guided aerial bombs and just over two dozen missile strikes of various types, including lethal ballistic projectiles.<\/p>\n

\"Russian<\/p>\n

Russian soldiers fire a Pion self-propelled 203 mm gun towards Ukrainian positions in Ukraine on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026 – AP\/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service <\/p>\n

He called on allies to boost support to Kyiv to continue to build up its defences to withstand the continued Russian onslaught, and protect the lives of innocent civilians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is why Ukraine still needs more protection \u2013 above all, more missiles for air defence systems,\u201d said the Ukrainian leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Russia is deliberately dragging out the diplomatic process, the world\u2019s response must be decisive: more assistance for Ukraine and more pressure on the aggressor,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The attacks come as a Ukrainian delegation arrived in Miami on Saturday to hold talks with US officials and representatives of US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\"Ukraine's<\/p>\n

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives at the presidential palace in Nicosia, Cyprus, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026 – Petros Karadjias\/Copyright 2026 The AP. All rights reserved <\/p>\n

Kyrylo Budanov, Zelenskyy\u2019s chief of staff, said the Ukrainian delegation, which also includes negotiators Rustem Umerov and Davyd Arakhamia, arrived to discuss \u201cthe details of the peace agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a message on the Telegram messaging app, Budanov said the team is scheduled to meet with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner and US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy said he instructed the team to update Washington on Russia\u2019s unrelenting strikes, to give his US counterpart a full picture of the realities on the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The strikes are) constantly worsening even the small opportunities for dialogue that existed. The American side must understand this,\u201d stressed Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Russia is readying itself to carry out strikes against Ukraine\u2019s nuclear power…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7655],"tags":[140324,80634,211515,41521,332,175614,657,43717,2601],"class_list":["post-704153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-russia","tag-drone-attacks","tag-energy-grid","tag-missile-strikes","tag-nuclear-power-plants","tag-russia","tag-russian-soldiers","tag-ukraine","tag-ukrainian-president","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115915956393968213","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}