(Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday the situation at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station had become critical, with Russian shelling preventing restoration of power needed to cool the reactors and prevent a meltdown.
Zelenskiy, speaking in his nightly video address, said one of the diesel generators providing emergency power was no longer working, seven days after external power lines went down.
“This is the seventh day. There has never before been such an emergency situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant. The situation is critical. Russian shelling has cut the plant off from the electricity network,” Zelenskiy said.
The Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest with six reactors, was seized by Russian troops in the first weeks of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and each side regularly accuses the other of attacks that endanger nuclear safety.
It produces no electricity at the moment, but needs power to ensure fuel in the reactors remain cool and no meltdown occurs. It was the 10th occasion since the start of the conflict that the plant has been disconnected from the power grid.
“This is a threat to everyone. No terrorist in the world has ever dared to do with a nuclear power plant what Russia is doing now. And it is right that the world not remain silent.”
Russian officials have not commented on the latest statements on conditions at the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, decried the cutoff of the external power lines on Monday, but assessed no blame to either side.
Grossi has repeatedly called on both sides to uphold nuclear safety. IAEA monitors are stationed permanently at Zaporizhzhia and at Ukraine’s three other nuclear power stations.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksandr Kozhukhar; Editing by Chris Reese and Lisa Shumaker)
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