DM Monitoring
KYIV: Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been left without electricity supply following Russian missile strikes and is running on diesel generators.
The disruption came during a fresh wave of Russian missiles that hit at least 10 regions out of 27 across Ukraine, killing at least nine people and led to power outages across the country.
The operator said it was the sixth time that the facility had been disconnected from the electricity grid since Russian forces captured the plant last year.
Russia fired 81 missiles, including six Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, and eight drones at Ukraine in early-morning strikes on Thursday, the Ukrainian air force said.
Ukraine destroyed 34 cruise missiles and four Shahed suicide drones, and eight drones.
Russia-installed officials in the Moscow-controlled part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region said the halt in electricity supplies to the nuclear power station from Ukrainian-held territory was “a provocation.”
The Energoatom state company warned: “The countdown has begun. If it is impossible to renew the external power supply of the station during this time, an accident with radiation consequences for the whole world may occur.”
The UN nuclear agency’s chief also expressed grave concern over repeated power outages at the power plant.
“Each time we are rolling a dice,” said IAEA atomic agency chief Rafael Grossi. “If we allow this to continue time after time then one day our luck will run out.”
Russian authorities controlling the plant said there were enough fuel reserves to ensure the operation of generators, adding that all safety and security issues at the plant were in order.
Moscow’s troops secured the plant on March 4, 2022, just days after the start of the conflict.
Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of shelling around Zaporizhzhia, the biggest nuclear facility in Europe.
The UN’s nuclear agency IAEA deployed observers to the plant in September and is seeking to negotiate a demilitarised zone near the facility, but talks appear to have stalled.
