Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant cut off from power grid by Russian shelling, says Ukraine

The power plant only has 15 days’ worth of fuel to run the generators

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been disconnected from the country’s grid after Russian shelling destroyed its last remaining high-voltage power lines, according to officials.

Ukraine’s atomic energy company Energoatom had previously warned that Russia’s efforts to cut the Zaporizhzhia plant off from the grid risked a catastrophic failure of its cooling systems.

The power plant only has 15 days’ worth of fuel left to run the generators, Energoatom said. The plant’s blocks 5 and 6 are being switched into cold state, it said.

Earlier, world leaders had called for demilitarisation of the Zaporizhzhia site after footage emerged of Russian army vehicles stationed inside the plant.

The Russian-occupied nuclear plant had already been operating on emergency diesel generators for the past two weeks, after Energoatom said the only substation supplying the plant with electricity from the Ukrainian grid was damaged by Russian shelling.

Although the plant’s six reactors have been shut down for weeks, they need a constant supply of electricity to keep the nuclear fuel inside cool and prevent a meltdown.

Energoatom has previously accused Russia of targetting all the substations supplying Ukrainian nuclear power stations with electricity, with the Ukrainian energy minister calling it “nuclear blackmail by a terrorist country”.

“Such nuclear blackmail by a terrorist country should not go unanswered by the world community! Ukraine needs protection of the skies above its energy facilities!” German Galushchenko had earlier written on Facebook.

Apart from shelling at the nuclear plant, Russian strikes were also reported overnight in central Ukraine’s Kriviy Rih and in Sumy and Kharkiv, in the northeast of the country. Heavy fighting was ongoing in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

“The enemy is trying to keep the temporarily captured territories, concentrating its efforts on restraining the actions of the defence forces in certain areas,” Ukraine‘s general staff said.

Russia has admitted to targeting infrastructure as part of what it calls its “special military operation” to degrade the Ukrainian military and remove what it says is a potential threat towards Russia’s security.

As a result, Ukrainian civilians have endured power cuts and reduced water supplies in recent weeks, challenges that are only likely to worsen in the coming winter months.