Europe’s largest nuclear plant has been knocked off Ukraine’s electricity grid after a fire caused by Russian shelling brought down its last transmission line, the facility’s operator said. Russian forces have kept up “intensive shelling” of the area around Zaporizhzhia in recent days, Energoatom said in a statement.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, a UN watchdog, said last Saturday that the plant had lost its last main line to the grid, but was still sending power to the grid through a reserve line. Officials at the IAEA, which still has two experts at the plant, and Energoatom were not immediately available to explain the consequences of the line being cut.
The developments came a day before UN inspectors were due to report on their efforts to avert a potential disaster at the Ukrainian site that has been engulfed by Russia’s war. The Russian military had earlier on Monday accused Ukrainian forces of staging “provocations” at the plant, which lies within a Russian-installed administrative area.
