Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to send a mission as quickly as possible to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which was reconnected to the electricity grid on Friday after a total blackout the day before attributed to the Russians.
“Our scientists, all specialists in the energy sector are managing to save the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant from the worst-case scenario that the Russian forces are constantly pushing towards,” Zelensky said in his daily video message, noting that the plant had been reconnected to the network.
“I want to emphasize that the situation remains very risky and dangerous,” he added, “which is why it is so important that the IAEA mission arrives at the plant as soon as possible and helps maintain it. under Ukrainian control,” he added.
The authorities had announced Thursday that the power station, the largest in Europe with its six reactors of 1000 megawatts each, had been “totally disconnected” from the national grid because of damage to the power lines caused by Russian soldiers.
Concerns
The security of these installations, located near the front line in the south, has been of concern to the international community since they passed into the hands of the Russian military in early March.
Tension has risen 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 shell 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.
The occupation authorities of Energodar, the city on which the plant depends, for their part 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.
IAEA experts 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, which Moscow denies.
“We cannot afford to waste any more time,” IAEA Director General Mariano Grossi said on Thursday, noting that there was a “very real risk of nuclear disaster.”
“Emergency meeting”
As a result of this 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 and the continent is bracing for a harsh 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.
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 Dnipropetrovsk (centre, no casualties).
It is in the surroundings of this last city that the Russian army had bombarded the station of Chapliné on Wednesday, killing 25 people, including two children, and 31 injured, according to a final assessment given by kyiv.
Russia claims to have hit a military train in 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, whose total conquest is Russia’s priority objective, “repeated enemy attacks have been repelled”, announced the Ukrainian presidency.
In this same province, “Ukrainian soldiers destroyed a base of Russian occupiers” in the small town of Kadiivka, said the head of the regional military administration, Serguiï Gaïdaï.
“The strike was so powerful that 200 Ruscist paratroopers (contraction of “Russian” and “fascist” used in Ukraine to designate the forces of Moscow) were killed”, according to Mr. Gaïdaï. The information could not be confirmed by an independent source.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, for his part, stressed on Friday the need to strengthen security on the northern flank of the Alliance to counter Russia.
“The shortest route to North America for Russian missiles and bombers would be the North Pole,” he warned in this regard.