Ukraine Accuses Russia of Deliberately Cutting Power to Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant for Grid Reconnection

Police officers are investigating the site of a Russian drone strike during the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister on Sunday accused Russia of deliberately cutting the external power supply to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in an attempt to connect the facility to Russia's electrical grid.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stated that Moscow was conducting tests to reconnect the plant to Russia's power network.

Ukrainian authorities have long expressed concerns that Russia would attempt to redirect the nuclear plant's output to its own grid. Russian officials, however, have consistently denied any intentions to restart the plant, which was captured by Russian forces in the early phase of Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Currently, the plant is not generating electricity and has been without external power for nearly three weeks. Facility officials have been forced to rely on emergency diesel generators to maintain power necessary for cooling the nuclear fuel and preventing a potential meltdown.

"Russia intentionally broke the plant's connection with the Ukrainian grid in order to forcefully test reconnection with the Russian grid," Sybiha wrote in English on social media platform X. He characterized the action as an "attempted theft of a peaceful Ukrainian nuclear facility."

Sybiha further claimed, "Moscow tries to fool the IAEA and the whole technical and diplomatic community by pretending that the problem is caused by anyone other than itself."

Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of artillery attacks that resulted in the power line outage.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog, announced last week that efforts to restore the external power connection were underway. The organization has repeatedly urged both parties to avoid actions that might compromise nuclear safety.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated in his nightly video address that restoring security at the plant was not in Russia's interests. He called on the IAEA to establish "a clearer, more honest position" regarding the situation.

There was no immediate response from Russian authorities regarding the Ukrainian allegations.

Last week, Interfax news agency reported that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stated there were currently no grounds to restart the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant without an external power source. This statement came after Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom had reportedly mentioned preparations to restart the facility.