Ukraine: after a power outage at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the situation is restored

Russia sent yet another salvo of missiles to several Ukrainian cities early Thursday morning, killing and injuring several people. The current, cut since the beginning of the day, returned to the nuclear site which used emergency diesel generators.

As fierce fighting continues in Bakhmout, a key city in eastern Ukraine, a new wave of massive Russian strikes swept across the country on Thursday morning. At least six people died. The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, occupied by the Russian army in southern Ukraine, has been temporarily cut off from the Ukrainian electricity grid, according to the Ukrainian nuclear operator. “Ukrenergo specialists have restored the power supply to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, interrupted by today’s missile strikes”said Ukrenergo, the Ukrainian electricity transmission company in a press release published on Thursday afternoon. “The last line of communication between the occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and the Ukrainian power grid has been cut off due to rocket attacks” Russians, explained earlier Energatom, the National Company of production of nuclear energy.

“The station […] went into ”black-out” mode for the sixth time since the occupationthe reactors of units 5 and 6 were put [à l’arrêt] Cold”, detailed Energatom. The operator specifies that 18 emergency diesel generators have been switched on to ensure the minimum power supply to the plant. “They have enough fuel for ten days. The countdown has begun”, Energatom worried before power returned. The organization had warned of a risk of accident, if the situation did not recover. “If it is not possible to renew the external power supply of the plant, an accident with radioactive consequences for the whole world could take place”.

The Russian army occupied this huge nuclear complex in southern Ukraine on March 4, 2022, nine days after the start of its invasion. The plant, which previously produced 20% of Ukraine’s electricity, continued to operate for the first months of the invasion, despite periods of bombardment, before being shut down in September. Since then, none of its six Soviet-era VVER-1000 reactors have been generating power, but the facility remains connected to Ukraine’s energy system and consumes electricity produced by it for its own needs.

Previously, the Ukrainian nuclear operator had warned that the shutdown of the plant would lead to “a gradual degradation of all its systems and equipment”. Energatom was also worried about a “risk of nuclear incident” in the event of a break in the last power line connecting the plant to the Ukrainian energy system.

At least five dead in Lviv

More broadly, the Russian strikes have once again targeted many regions of the country, including those furthest from the eastern front, such as Odessa or Lviv. In the latter, near the border with Poland, at least five people died because of the explosions, counts this Thursday morning the government. A Russian missile fell on a residential area in Zolochiv district, destroying three houses, Governor Maksym Kozytsky said on Telegram. “The debris is being cleared, other people may be below,” he added.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko also reports several explosions in the Ukrainian capital, where at least two people were injured. “Sviatochyne district. Help is on the spot. Cars are on fire in the courtyard of a residential building,” wrote Vitali Klitschko, on Telegram, stating that two people in this neighborhood had been injured and hospitalized. In addition, 40% of Kyiv residents are deprived of heating, the strikes having affected energy infrastructure, according to the military administration. The city of Kharkiv is deprived of electricity, water and heating.

President Zelensky denounced the “wretched tactics” after bombings that hit ten regions of the country, including the capital kyiv, and targeted energy infrastructure. Ukrainian air defense shot down 34 out of 81 missiles and four drones launched by Russia. Since October, after several military setbacks, Moscow has regularly bombarded Ukraine’s key energy facilities with missiles and drones to plunge millions of people into darkness and cold.

Battle for Bakhmout

These large-scale strikes come the day after the announcement by the boss of the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner, Evgeny Prigojine, of the capture of the eastern part of Bakhmout, a small town in eastern Ukraine at the heart of the fighting for months, despite a disputed strategic value. He also claimed that his fighters had conquered the tiny village of Dubovo-Vassylivka, north of Bakhmout.

The city could fall “in the next few days”, warned NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, adding however that “this does not necessarily reflect any turning point in the war”. But Ukraine clings to this battle even though it admits that the situation is “extremely tense”. Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky himself, judged on the contrary that the fall of the city could open the way to a Russian advance in the East, and dispatched reinforcements.

Thursday’s strikes also follow a meeting on Wednesday of the EU’s 27 defense ministers in Stockholm with their Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiï Reznikov to negotiate a plan for deliveries of shells and ammunition to Kiev, which could be increased to two. Billions of Euro’s.

Update : at 10:20 a.m., with more details on the situation and at 3 p.m. with the restoration of power.