If Putin is losing the ground war in Ukraine and running out of troops, what other options does he have? The obvious fear is that he’d use nuclear weapons or attack Ukraine’s nuclear power stations. Last night, the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant in Mykolaiv oblast, 300 km (200 miles) south from Kyiv, was struck, with more than 100 windows destroyed by the blast. Such plants are designed to withstand explosions although not missile attacks. The reactor was not hit and there (as yet) are no reports of any radioactive leakage.

For nuclear plants to be shelled at all shows a dangerous turn of events. Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear company, has published photos of a crater four metres in diameter and two metres deep, together with a video of the attack, saying: ‘A powerful explosion occurred just 300 metres from the reactors’. The picture of the crater is below:

Herman Galushchenko, Ukraine’s energy minister, said the attack makes the case for reinforcements. ‘If the nuclear winter comes, the problem of high electricity prices will no longer be relevant,’ he warned. Zelensky wrote on his Telegram channel: ‘Russia endangers the whole world. We have to stop it before it’s too late’.

This is part of a series of Russian strikes on Ukrainian electricity plants which, according to the Institute of the Study of War, is intended to slow down Ukraine’s counter-offensive in Kherson region. Last week, Ukrainian hydrotechnical infrastructure was hit when the Karachun dam in Kryvyi Rih (Zelensky’s hometown) was shelled. Part of the city was flooded and more such attacks are expected.