The Zaporizhzhia power plant is once again without external power while Russia denounces attacks on Energodar

The United Nations nuclear agency has confirmed that the Ukrainian Zaporizhia power plant, under Russian control, was left last night for an hour without its only external power line “for unknown reasons” that Moscow has attributed to a wave of Ukrainian attacks against the city of Energodar, where the plant is located.

The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, recalled that, with this outage, the plant has been left without supply a total of 16 times since the beginning of the Russian invasion in 2022 through its only external energy line, essential for the plant to operate normally.

In cases like last night, the diesel generators are activated to preserve a minimum of stability in the plant but the general director has warned that it is by no means an infallible alternative method. “Nuclear security remains precarious,” Grossi concluded.

For her part, the head of communications of the Russian directorate of the nuclear power plant, Yevgeniya Yashina, has assured that the incidents of the last few hours have the Ukrainian Army as the only culprit. The wave of nighttime bombings, he denounced, “have been directed against infrastructure and roofs, but there is no critical damage or fatalities.”

As for the nuclear plant, “radiation levels are normal” and the plant “is under control” since this morning, as stated to the Russian agency TASS. Ukrainian attacks also seem to have decreased in recent hours.