Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant cut off from power grid, says Russia

Issued on: 22/05/2023 – 08:09

7:52am: Ukraine’s Energoatom says power outage at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

Ukraine’s state-owned power generating company Energoatom said on Monday that there was a power outage at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant after a Russia-installed official said the plant was switched to standby and emergency power supply.

“Yes, we have the seventh blackout since the start of the (Russian) occupation,” Energoatom told Reuters. Yuriy Malashko, governor of the Zaporizhzhia region in Ukraine said that there was a fire at one of the facilities in Zaporizhzhia city due to an overload in the power system.

“Problems with electricity supply that arose in the city of Zaporizhzhia are not related to shelling,” Malashko said on the Telegram messaging app.

7:48am: Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant switched to standby, says Russia-installed official

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was switched to standby and emergency power supply generators, a Russia-installed local official in the Moscow-controlled part of the region said on Monday.

Vladimir Rogov said the plant was “completely” disconnected from external power supply after Ukraine disconnected a power line it controls.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, but Anatoliy Kurtev, Zaporizhzhia city council’s secretary in Ukraine, said that work was ongoing since early Monday to restore power to the city.

5:18am: Russia launches overnight air attack on Ukraine’s Dnipro

Russia launched an overnight air attack on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, officials said early on Monday, with media reporting a series of blasts.

It was not immediately known whether the blasts were air defence systems destroying their targets or Russian missiles or drones hitting their targets but the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, of which Dnipro is the administrative centre, praised defenders.

“Thanks to the defence forces, we withstood the attack. Details will come in due time,” the governor Serhiy Lysak, said on his Telegram messaging app, referring to Russian forces as “terrorists”.

2:41am: Brazil’s Lula says meeting fell through because Ukraine’s Zelensky was late

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Monday he was “upset” he and Volodymyr Zelensky did not meet at the G7 summit, adding his Ukrainian counterpart seemed uninterested in negotiating peace with Russia.

Zelensky, who emerged from the summit in Hiroshima with fresh diplomatic support and pledges of more military aid, had sought a one-on-one meeting with Lula, who has faced accusations of being soft on Russia over its invasion.

Both leaders said scheduling conflicts had prevented them from meeting — which Zelensky quipped had likely left his Brazilian counterpart “disappointed”.

2:16am: Russia says F-16 transfer to Ukraine would raise questions of NATO’s involvement

The transfer of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine would raise the question of NATO’s involvement in the conflict, Russia’s Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said in remarks published early on Monday.

Antonov also said in remarks published on the embassy’s Telegram messaging channel that any Ukrainian strike on Crimea would be considered a strike on Russia.

“It is important that the United States be fully aware of the Russian response” (to such strikes), Antonov said.

• Key developments from Sunday, May 21:

Although Russia claims it has won control of Ukraine’s eastern city of Bakhmut, after a grinding nine-month conflict in which tens of thousands of fighters have died, top Ukrainian military leaders say the battle is not over. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky compared Bakhmut’s “total destruction” after months of continuous battles and shelling to the Japanese city of Hiroshima after the nuclear strike of 1945. This comes following conflicting reports on the status of Bakhmut, as Russia claimed to have taken the city.

Read yesterday’s live blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)