His nuclear power plant Zaporozhyethe oldest in Europewhich is under Russian occupation and repeatedly bombed, is back in operation after having previously been “completely disconnected” from the grid due to damaged power lines, the Ukrainian company Energoatom said.

“Two operating reactors of the station were disconnected from the network. Thus, the actions of the attackers led to the complete disconnection of the Zaporizhzhya NPP from the power grid for the first time in its history,” the state group said in a Telegram message.

According to the Ukrainian company, fires in the area of ​​the Zaporizhzhya CHPP, located next to the nuclear power plant, caused a double shutdown of the last line connecting the facilities to the power grid. “Three more lines were previously destroyed by terrorist attacks from Russia,” he added.

In the afternoon, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was “notified by Ukraine” of this loss of communications. But he clarified that “now the station is working,” as it remains connected to the network through a nearby thermal power plant, which can provide “backup electricity.”

The reactors’ emergency protection systems worked, all safety systems remained operational, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi assured. “These facilities remained offline even after the power lines were restored,” he continued, without specifying the reason for the outage.

For several weeks, Moscow and Kyiv have been blaming each other for blowing up a nuclear power plant that has six reactors with a total capacity of 6,000 megawatts. Ukraine also accuses Russia of storing heavy weapons at the station and using it as a base for strikes against Ukrainian military positions. The Russians deny that they have placed heavy weapons on the site, claiming that only units assigned to guard the station are in Zaporozhye.

^{Source: APE-MEB, Reuters, AFP.}