A Russian soldier stands guard at a checkpoint near the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. Photo: ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO/REUTERS
Today on Telegraph Ukraine: the latest podcast, we bring you the latest news from the front lines, discuss financial support for Ukraine from the US and EU & David interviews Ukrainian journalist Inna Gadzinska about her work tracking down Ukrainian artifacts and treasures that end up in Russian museums.
Former British Army Colonel Hamish De Bretton-Gordon joins today's podcast to report on President Zelensky's announcement that Ukraine will face huge waves of attacks on its energy grid:
< p>This is the area we will talk about. much more over the next few weeks and months as the weather begins to deteriorate and the need for additional electricity and heat becomes greater and greater.
Last winter, Russia attacked not only power plants, but also related infrastructure. As more and more precision-guided weapons are expected to become available to the Russians, this will become an even more difficult task.
Hamish continues, comparing last year's winter with the coming one.
This winter will be a little different because much more of that energy will come from nuclear power, with three nuclear power plants coming back online this winter. Let's hope the Russians, if they are going to prosecute actions like this, will focus on the distribution network rather than directly attacking these power plants.
We've done a lot of work with people I advise in the area on how to stay safe. These nuclear power plants are not like Chernobyl. They are unlikely to cause any major nuclear explosion or event. But the likelihood of infection in local areas up to a couple of hundred kilometers in radius will be significantly high, and one can hope that air defense is good enough to avoid direct hits on these objects.
Assistant commentary editor Francis Dearnley joins his analysis of this delicate situation:
I think it is also important to emphasize that a lot of work has been done over the past year to prepare for this. in winter.
Obviously, we weren't sure that the war would still go on, but in all likelihood it would, so Ukraine's allies did a lot of work to create protective mechanisms that would ensure that strikes were no longer as effective as they were in that first terrible winter .
I know we stress this as often as we can, but it's always worth repeating: when you attack civilian infrastructure directly, it is a war crime. When your deliberate goal is to destroy civilian infrastructure, it is unacceptable under international law. Therefore, we can say irrefutably that those strikes that we saw last year, which were aimed at bringing down the energy grid in Kiev, and by doing so you are taking energy away from people's homes, in hospitals, in community centers, then this vs. Rules-based order, which we have referred to so many times.
Listen to Ukraine: The Last, The Telegraph's daily podcast, using the audio player at the top of this article or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app.
War in Ukraine is changing our world. Every weekday, The Telegraph's leading journalists analyze the invasion from all angles – military, humanitarian, political, economic, historical – and tell you everything you need to know to stay informed.
Our podcast Ukraine: latestWith over 55 million downloads, your go-to source for the latest analysis, real-time reactions and on-the-ground reporting. We have been broadcasting since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
Ukraine: Regular participants of The Latest are:
David Knowles
David – director audio development department at The Telegraph, where he worked for almost three years. He reported from all over Ukraine during the full-scale invasion.
Dominic Nicholls
Dom is deputy editor (defence) at The Telegraph, joining in 2018. He previously served in the British Army for 23 years in tank and helicopter units. He had operational deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland.
Francis Dearnley
Francis is assistant comment editor at The Telegraph. Before working as a journalist, he was chief of staff to the Chairman of the Prime Minister's Policy Council in the Houses of Parliament in London. He studied history at Cambridge University and in the podcast reveals how the past sheds light on the latest diplomatic, political and strategic events.
They are also regularly joined by The Telegraph's foreign correspondents around the world, including Joe Barnes(Brussels), Sofia Yang (China), Natalia Vasilyeva (Russia), Roland Oliphant (Senior Reporter) and Colin Freeman (Reporter).
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