The plant was reconnected to the electricity grid on Friday, after a day of outage. Volodymyr Zelensky press theInternational Atomic Energy Agency to visit the site, occupied by the Russian army since March.
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Ukraine continues to alert on the situation of the nuclear power plant of Zaporijjia, occupied by Russia since the beginning of its invasion in March and object of all the attentions these last days. The bombings attributed to Russia have “damaged (…) the infrastructure of the plant” and there is “risks of hydrogen leakage and spraying of radioactive substances”says in a press release (in English) the Ukrainian public operator, Energoatom, on Saturday 27 August.
In the past 24 hours, “the Russian army repeatedly shelled the site” plant, assures Energoatom, which adds that the damage is being assessed by Ukrainian staff. The operator also presents the risk of fire as “raised”and reaffirms that the presence “of the Russian army, its weapons, equipment and explosives” threatens the security of the premises.
Russia, for its part, also accused Ukraine of bombing Zaporizhya. Russian Defense Ministry says Ukrainian army fired 17 shells at site compound in past 24 hours, four of which hit building “where are 168 US nuclear fuel assemblies”.
On Thursday, the Ukrainian authorities announced that the plant had been completely disconnected from the electricity grid due to damage caused by the Russian army. It had been reconnected on Friday afternoon, Energoatom announced.
In his daily video message on Friday evening, Volodymyr Zelensky also described the situation at the plant as “very risky and dangerous”. Ukraine’s president says he hopes the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “get to the plant as soon as possible”. Its experts are expected on site next week.