Ukraine accused of cutting itself off from power supply
Ukraine has unilaterally cut itself off from energy supplied by the Russian-held Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, the regional administration has said.
“The supply of electricity from the [facility] to the territory controlled by the [President Vladimir] Zelensky regime has been cut,” Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Zaporozhye Region administration, announced on Saturday.
The energy flow was “unilaterally stopped by Ukraine,” Rogov clarified, adding that the plant’s capacity to power areas under Kiev’s control remained. “They deliberately refrain from receiving electricity,” he said.
The nuclear power plant, which is the largest in Europe, is currently providing energy only to the Russian-held territories in Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, according to Rogov.
Seized by Russian forces in March shortly after the start of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, the nuclear facility and the nearby city of Energodar have repeatedly come under missile and artillery strikes in recent weeks.
Moscow blames Kiev for the attacks, which it warned could cause a disaster that would affect many countries in Europe. It also said several attempts to retake the power plant by Ukrainian saboteurs had been repelled.
The Ukrainian authorities have claimed that Russia has turned the plant into a military base and that it is shelling the facility itself in order to pin the blame on Kiev.
Only one of the facility’s six power units is currently operational at the station, according to Rogov. Kiev is deliberately trying to disable the plant, despite it being especially harmful to the Ukrainian economy, he added.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose inspectors visited the plant in early September, issued a report on the security situation there on Tuesday. The agency demanded that all attacks on the facility “be stopped immediately” and called for a cessation of any military activity within or in the vicinity of the plant. However, it didn’t identify the side responsible for the shelling.
