UN watchdog says Russia and Ukraine have established special ceasefire zones to allow the repairs to be safely carried out. What we know on day 1,334
Work has started to repair damaged power lines leading to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after a lengthy outage, the UN’s nuclear watchdog said on Saturday. The site, occupied by Russian forces since March 2022, lost its connection to the grid on 23 September for the 10th time – the longest outage of external power supply to the facility since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The repairs to the off-site power lines began after Russian and Ukrainian forces established “local ceasefire zones to allow work to proceed”, Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a post on X. “Both sides engaged constructively with the IAEA to enable the complex repair plan to proceed,” Grossi said. “Restoration of off-site power is crucial for nuclear safety and security.” The agency said it expected the work to take about a week. Russia and Ukraine confirmed the repair works had begun.
Since the outage, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe has been powered by back-up diesel generators. The nuclear plant’s six reactors, which produced about one-fifth of Ukraine’s electricity before the war, were shut down after Moscow took control. But the plant needs electricity to maintain its cooling and safety systems to prevent a disaster.
