Russian president Vladimir Putin and French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have discussed the safety and security situation at Europe’s biggest nuclear power station, after Ukraine started shutting down the plant’s last operating reactor following repeated shelling.
Ukrainian nuclear energy operator Energoatom announced on Sunday that it was powering down reactor number six at the Zaporizhzhia facility after the site was reconnected to the national grid, stabilising electricity supply for cooling and other vital functions.
The work of Ukrainian technicians at the plant is overseen by Russian troops who seized the area in March, and the two states blame each other’s forces for shelling that has damaged sensors and downed power lines at the facility several times in recent weeks, stoking international fears of a potential radiation leak.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), western states and top United Nations officials have called for the creation of a demilitarised zone around the plant, but Russia refuses to withdraw its forces from the site, where Kyiv accuses it of storing heavy weapons and armoured vehicles and firing on Ukrainian positions across the Dnieper river.
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The Kremlin said Mr Putin told Mr Macron about “regular Ukrainian attacks on (the plant) including its radioactive waste storage facility, which risks catastrophic consequences” and “stressed the need to press the Kyiv authorities to stop shelling the plant immediately.”
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At an economic conference in Kyiv, meanwhile, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said it was “time to end the Russia-created crisis at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant” before the onset of winter.
“The European Union, Turkey and other states living in the direction that the wind could carry radioactive contamination should definitely not be going into winter with the threat of a radiation disaster,” he added.
“But another thing is also important - the stable operation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station within the Ukrainian energy system could become one of the key, important elements of guaranteed, stable energy consumption for Europe.”
Energoatom said that after a power line between the Zaporizhzhia facility and the national grid was repaired on Saturday, “it became possible to power the (plant’s) in-house needs from the energy system of Ukraine. Therefore, a decision was made to shut down power unit No. 6 and switch it to the safest state – cold shutdown.”
The firm warned that if electricity lines were damaged again by shelling, the plant would have to rely on back-up diesel generators to power cooling and other vital functions.
“To prevent an emergency situation at the power plant, it is necessary to stop Russian shelling of transmission lines linking (it) to the power system and establish a demilitarised zone around it. After that, it will be possible to repair transmission lines, to ensure connection to the grid and further safe operation” of the facility, Energoatom said.
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Two IAEA inspectors are still at the plant following an inspection by a bigger team earlier this month, and the agency has issued increasingly urgent warnings about the site and the nearby town of Enerhodar, which has suffered repeated blackouts due to shelling.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said on Friday that “with the increasingly dire circumstances that the people of Enerhodar are facing, there is the significant risk of an impact on the availability of essential staff on site to continue to safely and securely operate” the plant.
“This is an unsustainable situation and is becoming increasingly precarious…I therefore urgently call for the immediate cessation of all shelling in the entire area,” he said, adding that it was essential “to establish a nuclear safety and security protection zone now.”
Russia has called such a proposal “not serious” and insists its forces are protecting the plant.
