At night, the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) lost power to one of the high-voltage lines due to hostilities.
This is reported by the Ministry of Energy.
They noted that during the full-scale war, Russian shelling repeatedly damaged the power lines of ZNPP, causing 12 blackouts at the plant, the last of which occurred less than a month ago.
In addition, the Russian occupiers are deliberately disabling the energy infrastructure in the occupied territories and testing the connection of the Zaporizhzhia NPP to their own energy system in conditions of hostilities.
According to the Air Force, on the night of January 3, Russia attacked Ukraine with 95 “Shahed” drones. Air defenses neutralized 80 of them. 15 UAVs were hit in eight places, and debris fell in two places.
The Russians massively attacked critical infrastructure with drones in the Mykolaiv region. According to the head of the Regional Military Administration Vitaliy Kim, the strikes resulted in a power outage in some settlements in the Mykolaiv area.
What is known about the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia NPP?
The Russians occupied the Zaporizhzhia NPP in early March 2022 and have been operating under their control since then. An IAEA mission has been at the station since September 2022. Ukraine insists on the withdrawal of the Russian occupiers from the station. Russia refuses to create a demilitarized zone at the Zaporizhzhia NPP.
In September of this year, Putin stated that Russia is ready to cooperate with the US and Ukraine on the Zaporizhzhia NPP. According to him, “if favorable circumstances arise, [...] we can even work together at the Zaporizhzhia NPP”.
Back in March of this year, the Russians stated that ZNPP is a Russian nuclear facility and that transferring control over it to Ukraine or any other country is impossible.
Currently, the Zaporizhzhia NPP is connected to only one external power supply line. “Energoatom” explained that if the only working line fails, this will mean that the Zaporizhzhia NPP will lose external power supply to the station and will start emergency diesel generators. However, their resources are limited both in terms of operating time and the availability of diesel fuel. Thus, the launch of diesel generators means the beginning of the countdown to the melting of nuclear fuel.
On October 30, a massive Russian combined strike on Ukrainian energy infrastructure damaged substations critical to the country’s nuclear safety and security. On November 14, ZNPP lost power to one of its two external power transmission lines, the Dniprovska line, which is the main power supply to the plant. This line was restored on November 19.
On December 28, Ukraine and Russia agreed on a local ceasefire near the Zaporizhzhia NPP to repair damaged power lines.
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