Shelling forces Ukraine nuke plant off grid
KYIV: The last working reactor at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine was disconnected from the grid after shelling caused a fire, with the United Nations atomic watchdog due to brief the UN Security Council about the crisis on Tuesday.
Soon after it invaded on February 24, Moscow largely took control of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in southern Ukraine and is now aiming to absorb them into Russia through referendums, as it did with Crimea in 2014.
Russia also blamed Western sanctions for its halting of gas supplies to Germany, and on top of the crisis in Europe there are fears of a nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhia plant, which Europe’s biggest atomic facility.
“Today the last power transmission line connecting the plant to the energy system of Ukraine was damaged due to another Russian provocative shelling,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Monday. “Due to Russian provocation, the Zaporizhzhia plant is one step away from a radiation disaster.”
The facility has been shelled in recent weeks, with Ukraine and Russia blaming each other for the attacks as fears grow of a possible nuclear accident.
Ukraine’s state-run power company Energoatom said on Monday the plant’s last working reactor — Power Unit No. 6 — was disconnected from the grid because shelling had started a fire.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was informed by Ukraine that the line would be reconnected when the fire is extinguished.
The nuclear watchdog was due to release a report on Tuesday about its mission to the plant last week, with Director-General Rafael Grossi scheduled to also brief the Security Council on the situation.
Worst nuclear disaster
In 1986, Ukraine — a part of the Soviet Union at the time — was the scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, when a reactor at the Chernobyl plant exploded and spewed radiation into the atmosphere.
The attacks at the Zaporizhzhia plant have prompted comparisons with that disaster, and the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday accused Russia of “reckless behavior.”
After failing to capture Kyiv in the first weeks of the invasion, Russia has focused its attacks on Ukraine’s south and east.
Authorities installed by Moscow in the Kherson region on Monday suggested that plans for a referendum on joining Russia had been delayed.
Kirill Stremousov, a pro-Moscow regional official, told Russian state television that the referendum plans were on hold, but later moderated his comments by saying it was not a pause. He did not mention a date for the vote.
“The referendum will take place, no matter what. No one will cancel it,” Stremousov said in a video posted on Telegram.
Ukrainian forces have claimed gains in their counteroffensive in the south, saying they have recaptured several areas and destroyed targets including a warehouse containing referendum ballot papers.
Moscow’s defense ministry, meanwhile, said it continued to inflict heavy losses on the Ukrainian army.
Europe’s energy crisis
Russia is a major energy exporter, and it has slashed gas supplies to Europe following Western sanctions over the invasion.
Power bills have soared across Europe, fueling already skyrocketing inflation.
The Kremlin has blamed the “collective West — in this case, the European Union, Canada and Britain —” for the halt of Russian gas supplies to Germany, after key infrastructure was closed indefinitely for repairs.
Fears are growing of crippling winter gas shortages in Europe.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Monday it would keep two nuclear plants on standby beyond the end of the year “in case needed” for electricity, partly delaying a nuclear exit planned under former chancellor Angela Merkel.
Germany has already moved to restart mothballed coal power plants and fill gas storage ahead of the winter to guard against an energy shortfall.