Ukraine announced on Friday that it had connected the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant to its electricity network, the disconnection of which the day before had further heightened concerns about the security of the site, the issue of all the tensions in this area occupied by the Russians.
At the same time, the whole of Europe is preparing for an unprecedented energy crisis. The Czech Presidency of the European Union has announced that it will convene an emergency meeting, at a time when energy prices are skyrocketing on the continent, pushed in large part by the reduction in the flow of Russian gas in response to penalties.
In Ukraine, the authorities announced on Thursday that the Zaporijjia power plant, the largest in Europe with its six reactors of 1,000 megawatts each, had found itself “totally disconnected” from the national grid “for the first time in its history”, because of damage to power lines caused by the “actions” of the Russian “invader”.
The security of these installations, located near the front line, and the risk of a nuclear accident in the event of a bombardment have worried international leaders since it passed into the hands of Russian forces in early March.
Tension has grown further in recent weeks, with Moscow and kyiv blaming each other for strikes on the site, where the Ukrainian military accuses the Russian army of having positioned artillery pieces to pound their positions.
“One of the reactors of the Zaporijjia power plant shut down the day before was reconnected to the electricity grid today” at 2:04 p.m., announced the Ukrainian operator Energoatom. It “produces electricity for the needs of Ukraine” and “the increase in [sa] power is in progress”.
Energoatom also ensured that the site’s security systems were functioning normally.
Next week “
“Russia has put the Ukrainians, like all Europeans, on the brink of a nuclear disaster,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Thursday.
In return, the occupation authorities of Energodar, the city on which the plant depends, again affirmed on Friday that Ukrainian troops had bombarded Zaporizhia.
The UN has called for the establishment of a demilitarized zone around the plant to secure it and to allow the dispatch of an international inspection mission.
Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are expected there “next week”, according to the adviser to the Ukrainian Minister of Energy Lana Zerkal, who accused the Russians of “artificially creating obstacles” to this mission.
“We cannot afford to waste any more time,” IAEA Director General Mariano Grossi said on Thursday, stressing that there was a “very real risk of nuclear disaster” and saying he wanted to personally lead the mission on the site “in the days to come”.
Skyrocketing electricity prices
As a result of this murderous war fought by Russia against Ukraine, which entered its sixth month on Wednesday, of the sanctions imposed in particular on Russian oil but also of the partial closure at this stage by Moscow of the gas tap, the prices of energy have exploded in Europe which is preparing for a difficult winter.
Combined in particular with the difficulties encountered by the French nuclear fleet, this crisis brought Friday the wholesale prices of electricity for 2023 in Germany and France to respectively 995 and 1100 euros per MWh, against 85 euros a year ago.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, whose country holds the presidency of the European Union, announced on Friday that he would convene “an emergency meeting of energy ministers”, with the consent of the European Commission.
Norway, a non-member of the EU but itself a major supplier of natural gas, for its part announced on Friday the entry into force of new sanctions “against President Putin and the Russian regime”, aligned with those taken by the EU in July.
New Russian strikes
On the military level, the Ukrainian presidency reported on Friday, Russian strikes in the past 24 hours on the regions of Kharkiv (northeast, one dead, three civilians injured), Donetsk (east, two dead and seven wounded, with fighting concentrated in particular on Bakhmout and its surroundings) and Dnipropetrovsk (center, no victims).
In this last region, the Russian army had bombarded the station of Tchapliné on Wednesday.
Friday, “rescue and search operations (were) completed in Tchapliné”, where the final toll is 25 dead, including two children aged six and 11, and 31 injured, said the deputy head of the presidential administration Ukrainian Kiril Tymoshenko.
Russia, for its part, claims to have targeted a military train at Chapliné with an Iskander missile and killed “more than 200 Ukrainian soldiers”.
In the region of Lugansk (east), which with that of Donetsk forms the Donbass, the total conquest of which is Russia’s priority objective, “repeated enemy attacks have been repelled”, assured the Ukrainian presidency.
In the same region, “Ukrainian soldiers destroyed a base of Russian occupiers” in the small town of Kadiivka, said Friday the head of the regional military administration, Serguiï Gaïdaï.
“The strike was so powerful that 200 Ruscist paratroopers (a contraction of ‘Russian’ and ‘fascist’ used in Ukraine to refer to Moscow’s forces) were killed,” Gaidai said. The information could not be confirmed by an independent source.
Since the Russian withdrawal from the vicinity of kyiv at the end of March, most of the fighting has been concentrated in the East and the South, where the fronts seem almost frozen.
Total forced to sell
In France, after two days of controversy, the oil giant TotalEnergies announced on Friday that it was selling its shares in the company operating the Termokarstovoie gas field to its Russian partner Novatek.
The French company was accused by the newspaper Le Monde and the NGO Global Witness of having competed, via this participation, in deliveries of gas condensate then transformed into kerosene to supply Russian planes engaged in the conflict in Ukraine.
The group first reaffirmed on Friday that it produced “no kerosene for the Russian army”.
He then said that he had agreed with his Russian partner to sell him his 49% stake in Terneftegaz.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, TotalEnergies has been criticized for being the last major Western oil company not to leave Russia.