Emergency diesel generators brought online after Russia accused of shelling substation supplying power to scene of 1986 disaster. What we know on day 1,317
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of posing a threat to global security, after Kyiv said a Russian shelling attack cut power to the defunct Chornobyl nuclear plant. “Every day that Russia prolongs the war, refuses to implement a full and reliable ceasefire, and continues striking all objects of our energy infrastructure – including those critical to the safety of nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities – is a global threat,” the Ukrainian president said. The site of Ukraine’s defunct nuclear plant – partially destroyed in a 1986 meltdown – lost power on Wednesday after Russia shelled a nearby substation, Kyiv said.
The UN’s atomic energy watchdog said the blackout affected Chornobyl’s confinement structure housing the plant’s damaged reactor core, and that two emergency diesel generators were now supplying it with electricity.
The incident comes eight days after the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine also lost power. Russia has been accused of deliberately sabotaging the last remaining power line into the nuclear plant, after satellite imagery of the damaged area showed no sign of Ukrainian shelling that Moscow claimed was preventing a repair. Outside power, normally used for cooling, has now been down for a record eight days, forcing the Russian operators of the plant in occupied Ukraine to rely on back-up diesel generators to avoid a meltdown of its six reactor cores.
