On October 12, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of deliberately cutting off the external power line supplying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Sybiha said Moscow is testing the plant's reconnection to the Russian grid.
"Russia has deliberately disrupted the plant's connection to the Ukrainian grid to experiment with reconnecting to the Russian grid," Sybiha wrote on social network X.
Ukraine has long been concerned that Russia will try to redirect the plant's electricity output to its own grid. In contrast, Russian officials have repeatedly denied the intention to restart Europe's largest nuclear power plant, which was under Moscow's control in the first weeks of the conflict that began in February 2022.
Currently, the Zaporizhzhia plant does not produce electricity, but has been without an external power source for nearly 3 weeks. The plant's staff must rely on emergency diesel generators to ensure the energy needed to cool fuel inside the reactors and prevent melting.
Foreign Minister Sybiha also accused Russia of trying to cover up and deceive international public opinion. " Moscow is trying to deceive the international community by blaming other parties for the incident it caused," he said.
Both sides have blamed each other for the shelling that caused power outages at the plant.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said last week that the process of resetting off external power connections is underway. IAEA has repeatedly called on both sides to curb actions that endanger nuclear safety.
In a video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky affirmed that Russia has no interest in restoring security at the plant. Therefore, he called on IAEA to take a clearer and more honest stance.
However, Interfax news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying that there is currently no basis to restart the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the context of a lack of external power sources.
