Nuclear plant on brink

EUROPE'S biggest nuclear facility was left in an "extremely dangerous" state yesterday after Vladimir Putin launched a series of new missile and drone strikes across Ukraine.

- Mark Reynolds

The overnight attack was described by Kyiv as the largest airstrike on its energy infrastructure in two years of war - and portrayed by Moscow as revenge for Ukrainian attacks during its presidential election.

A vast dam over the Dnipro river was hit, at least five people were killed and more than a million others left without power, forcing Ukraine to seek emergency electricity supplies from Poland, Romania and Slovakia, Kyiv officials said.

Rockets rained down on key power stations, knocking many out, and leaving the country's nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia in a perilous position as it needs a continuous supply 24 hours a day.

Dramatic footage showed the direct hit on the Dnipro hydroelectric facility, leaving more than a million people in darkness in Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv. Experts are fearing for the Zaporizhzhia plant after the night of terror.

It comes following a threat by newly re-elected despot Putin to target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

Petro Kotin, head of the Energoatom nuclear power company, warned: "Such a situation is extremely dangerous.

Emergency

"[It] threatens to lead to an emergency. If the last line linking the facility to the national power grid is disconnected, the plant will get into another blackout, which is a serious violation of the conditions for the safe operation of the plant." Workers were frantically trying to keep the Zaporizhzhia plant connected last night.