Ukraine power plant cut off again from main external power line after shelling — IAEA

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant again lost connection to the last remaining main external power line, but continues to supply electricity to the grid through a reserve line, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Saturday.

The agency also said that only one of the station’s six reactors remained in operation in a statement.

Zaporizhzhia, with six reactors, is Europe’s largest nuclear power station. The station has been controlled by Russian troops since soon after their invasion of Ukraine in late February and has become one of the focal points of the conflict, with each side blaming the other for shelling around the plant.

The UN nuclear watchdog’s experts now stationed at the plant were told by Ukrainian staff that the site’s fourth operational 750kv (kilovolt) power line was down after three others were lost earlier, the IAEA said.

But IAEA experts also learned that a reserve line linking the facility to a nearby thermal power plant was delivering electricity to the external grid. This reserve line can also provide backup power to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant if needed, it said.

“One reactor is still operating and producing electricity for cooling and other essential safety functions at the site and for households, factories and others through the grid,” the IAEA said.

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An IAEA mission, led by the agency’s director general Rafael Grossi, toured the plant on Thursday and some experts have remained there pending the release of a report on its operations.

Transmission lines to the plant were cut last week and the facility was cut off from the national grid for the first time in its history, prompting power cuts in various regions of Ukraine. But emergency generators kicked in to provide power needed for vital cooling processes.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy blamed Russian shelling for the cut-off and said a radiation leak had narrowly been avoided.

Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry said that Ukrainian forces had attempted to capture the Zaporizhzhia plant in an attack on the facility on Friday night — the second such allegation in as many days.

Reuters could not confirm any details of the Russian accusations.

The ministry said a Ukrainian naval force of more than 250 troops attempted to land on the coast of a lake near the plant, which is Europe’s largest nuclear energy station.

“Despite the presence of representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the Kyiv regime once again attempted to seize the plant,” the defence ministry said. Reuters was unable to verify the report.

Russia said its forces foiled the attack with strikes from military helicopters and fighter jets, destroying 20 Ukrainian vessels and causing others to scatter and call off the attack.

Kyiv and Moscow have traded accusations about attacks on the power plant, which was captured by Russian forces in March but is connected to the Ukrainian power grid and still operated by Ukrainian staff.

A reactor at the site was reconnected to Ukraine’s grid on Friday, a day after it shut down due to shelling nearby, Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom said.

Russia and Ukraine have said the situation is grave and the risk of a nuclear catastrophe is high.

Ukraine and the West have said Russia is using the site as a base for heavy weapons in a move to discourage Ukraine from firing on it. Russia has so far resisted international calls to pull troops out of the plant and demilitarise the area.

Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday denied Russia had heavy weapons at or near the power plant and accused Ukraine of committing “nuclear terrorism” through its attacks on the facility.

A representative of the Russian-installed regime in occupied Zaporizhzhia said the situation at the plant was calm on Saturday morning.

UN inspectors arrived at the plant on Thursday on a mission to help avert a catastrophe.

Vladimir Rogov, a pro-Russian official in the Zaporizhzhia region, said Ukrainian forces had shelled Europe’s largest nuclear plant several times overnight and the main power line to the station had been downed, forcing it to use reserve power sources, as occurred last week.

Reuters could not immediately substantiate his account.

Turkey offered on Saturday to facilitate the Zaporizhzhia situation.

In its announcement on Friday that it would not resume shipments through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline as had been expected, Russia’s state-controlled energy giant Gazprom blamed a technical fault.

Moscow has blamed sanctions imposed by the West after Russia’s February 24th invasion of Ukraine for hampering routine operations and maintenance of Nord Stream 1. Brussels and Washington accuse Russia of using gas as an economic weapon.

The United States said it has been collaborating with Europe to ensure sufficient supplies are available for winter.

The indefinite delay in resuming gas deliveries will deepen Europe’s problems securing fuel for winter with living costs already surging, led by energy prices.

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies — UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US — said on Friday a cap on the price of Russian oil was meant to “reduce ... Russia’s ability to fund its war of aggression whilst limiting the impact of Russia’s war on global energy prices”.

The Kremlin — which calls the conflict “a special military operation” — said it would stop selling oil to any countries that implemented the cap. — Reuters

During the first six months of the war, thousands of people were killed and Ukrainian cities reduced to rubble, and now there is the danger of a nuclear calamity.

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A United Nations inspection team, led by its chief Rafael Grossi, braved intense shelling to reach the Zaporizhzhia plant on Thursday.

Mr Grossi, after returning to Ukrainian-held territory, said the physical integrity of the plant had been violated several times. On Friday he said he said he expects to produce a report early next week, and two experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections team would stay on at the plant for the longer term.

A reactor at the site was reconnected to Ukraine's grid on Friday, a day after it shut down due to shelling near the site, Ukraine's state nuclear company Energoatom said.

The site sits on the south bank of a huge reservoir on the Dnipro river, 10km across the water from Ukrainian positions.

Each side has accused the other of shelling near the facility, which is still operated by Ukrainian staff and supplies more than a fifth of Ukraine's electricity in peacetime. Kyiv also accuses Russia of using it to shield its weapons, which Moscow denies. Russia has so far resisted international calls to pull troops out of the plant and demilitarise the area.

Ukraine's state nuclear company said Russia had barred the IAEA team from the plant's crisis centre, where Kyiv says Russian troops are stationed, and that would make it difficult to make an impartial assessment.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the IAEA team to go further, despite the difficulties.

“Unfortunately we haven’t heard the main thing from the IAEA, which is the call for Russia to demilitarise the station,” Mr Zelenskiy said in a video streamed to a forum in Italy.

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said Ukraine was continuing to use weapons from its western allies to shell the plant. He rejected assertions by Kyiv and the West that Russia had deployed heavy weapons at the plant.

Several towns near the plant came under Russian shelling on Thursday, Zaporizhzhia regional council mayor Mykola Lukashuk said.

Mr Rogov, the pro-Russian official, said Ukrainian forces had shelled Enerhodar, the Russia-held town near the power station. And he repeated accusations that Ukraine had mounted a commando-style raid on the station with speedboats on the river. Ukrainian officials have dismissed this as a fabrication.

Reuters could not verify either side's reports.

Counteroffensive

Elsewhere on the front lines, Ukraine started an offensive this week to recapture territory in southern Ukraine, mainly further down the Dnipro in neighbouring Kherson province.

sides have claimed battlefield successes in the initial days of what Ukrainians bill as a potential turning point in the war. Details have been scarce, with Ukrainian officials releasing little information.

Ukraine’s general staff on Friday said Russian forces had shelled dozens of cities and towns including Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-largest city — in the north and in the Donetsk region in the east. — Reuters

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