The largest nuclear complex in Ukraine, as well as in Europe, has stopped supplying electricity to Ukraine-controlled areas, Kremlin-backed authorities said on Saturday.
The announcement came at a time when inspectors from the United Nations (UN) Nuclear Organization were continuing their mission at the site.
The Russian-appointed city council in Enerhodar, where the Zaporijia plant is located, justified the situation with an alleged bomb attack carried out by Ukrainian troops this morning that destroyed a key power line.
“The supply of electricity to the areas controlled by Ukraine has been suspended due to technical problems,” the city council said. However, it is unclear whether electricity from the nuclear complex will reach Russian-controlled areas.
Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Kremlin-appointed regional administration, said a projectile hit an area between two reactors. Such claims could not be immediately confirmed by other sources.
In recent weeks, Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for bombing the unit and nearby, while also accusing each other of trying to boycott the visit of UN experts who arrived at the nuclear complex on Thursday.
The mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency is to help protect the site.
Russia’s defense ministry accused Ukrainian forces of attempting to capture that space on Friday, despite the presence of IAEA experts, sending 42 boats carrying 250 special forces and foreign “mercenaries” to attempt to land on the shore of the reservoir near Kachovka.
The Russian ministry said four Russian fighter jets and two helicopters had destroyed about 20 boats and that the others had changed course. He also reported that Russian artillery had hit the right bank of the Dnieper River, controlled by Ukraine, to hit the landing group that was retreating.
The same ministry claimed that the Russian army killed 47 soldiers, including 10 “mercenaries” and wounded 23. This data could not be independently verified from other sources.
Russia had previously said that about 60 Ukrainian soldiers had attempted to land near the factory on Thursday and that Russian troops had prevented the attempt.
Until this morning, neither the Ukrainian government nor the country’s nuclear power plant, Enerhoatom, has responded to these allegations.
The nuclear complex has been completely cut off from Ukraine’s power grid on several occasions since last week, with Enerhoatom blaming the bombings and mortar fires near the site.
Local Ukrainian authorities, for their part, accused Moscow of attacking two towns near the nuclear complex with “missiles” on the other side of the Dnieper River, an accusation that has been leveled repeatedly in recent weeks.
In Zorya, a small village about 20 kilometers from the Zaporijia factory, residents heard the sound of explosions in the area on Friday. However, it is not the bombings that worry them most, but the risk of a radioactive leak from the factory.
“Yeah, the factory is the scariest part,” Natalia Stokoz, a mother of three, told the AP, adding, “Children and adults will be affected, and it’s scary if the nuclear complex explodes.”
During the early weeks of the war, authorities gave iodine pills and masks to people living near the factory in case of possible radiation exposure.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today offered to take on the role of “facilitator” in the issue of the nuclear complex in Zaporijia, in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a statement from the Turkish presidency.
At the same time, Ukraine’s military reported today that Russian forces penetrated the country’s industrial east, while also trying to capture conquered areas of northeastern and southern Ukraine, including the Kherson region.
They said Ukrainian forces had repulsed about half a dozen Russian attacks in the Donetsk region, including near two towns identified as key targets in Moscow’s attempt to take the rest of the province.
The Donetsk region is one of two regions that make up the industrial heart of Ukraine’s Donbass, alongside Lugansk, which was invaded by Russian forces in early July.
On the other hand, a Russian bomb attack killed an 8-year-old child and injured four others in a southern Ukraine town near the Kherson region, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Source: DN
