UK vows to keep Ukraine power on

Britain has promised further ­urgent support for Ukraine after giving a withering take down of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. Picture: AFP

Britain has promised further ­urgent support for Ukraine after giving a withering take down of Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying his only aim “is to spread terror and deprive Ukrainian families of shelter, light and heat as winter ­approaches”.

A wave of Russian missiles hit hydro-electric and energy plants on Monday, rendering 80 per cent of the capital Kyiv without water and hundreds of thousands of homes without electricity.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also rejected the Kremlin’s “irresponsible” and absurd assertions that Ukraine planned to detonate a radiological “dirty bomb” on its own territory.

He told the House of Commons: “No other country is talking about nuclear use. No country is threatening Russia or President Putin.

“He should be clear that for the UK and our allies, any use at all of nuclear weapons would change the nature of the conflict. There would be severe consequences for Russia.”

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store raised his military’s alert level, saying: “This is the most severe security situation in several decades.”

He said while there were no indications that Russia was ­expanding its warfare to other countries, the “increased tensions make us more exposed to threats, intelligence operations and influence campaigns”.

Within hours of the latest Russian attacks, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said workers had repaired some of the damage and water had been restored to about 60 per cent of homes. Electricity was expected to return overnight.

Mr Cleverly promised the ­delivery of more than 800 generators and British support to ­repair the energy infrastructure.

As well as Kyiv, other major Ukraine towns in the regions of Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Mikolaiv, Lviv, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad and Chernivtsi were attacked by cruise missiles fired from Russian Tu-90 and T-60 aircraft flying north of the Caspian Sea and the Rostov region.

Ukraine Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said the “barbaric attacks” hit electric substations, hydropower and heat generation facilities.

Fragments from one Russian rocket, shot down by Ukrainian air defence, landed in neighbouring Moldova in the first “spillover” of the conflict.

Britain has already provided £2.3bn of British military assistance – more than any other country apart from the US – and £220m of humanitarian aid.

“We will continue to work with Ukrainians to help them keep the lights on and the water going, not just here and now, but to help energy resilience in the future,” Mr Cleverly said.

He said the G7 meeting in Germany on Thursday would discuss ways to encourage Russia to rejoin the Black Sea grain initiative that allows for grain ­exports where more than 60 per cent goes to low- and middle-­income countries, including Ethiopia, Yemen and Afghanistan.

“It would be unconscionable for those lands to be made to suffer because of Putin’s setbacks in Ukraine,” Mr Cleverly said.

“I urge Russia to stop impeding this vital initiative that is feeding the hungry across the world and agree to its extension.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia could not guarantee the safety of shipping of the grain ships, saying such a deal was “hardly feasible” following the drone attack on the Russian Black Sea fleet on Saturday.

Mr Putin repeated the accusation that Ukraine used the grain corridor for the attack, saying Kyiv had put civilian ships in danger, and calling on it to guarantee “that there will be no threat to the safety of civilian vessels”.