The final power line connecting the plant to the grid was cut twice by fires in the ashes of a nearby coal-fired power plant. Three other lines had already been removed after months of fighting. Disconnecting the unit increases the risk of catastrophic failure of the cooling systems for the electrically powered reactors and spent fuel rods. There have been growing international concerns about safety at Europe’s largest plant, where only two of the six reactors are operating. Russia has deployed military vehicles and is waging a campaign of terror against mostly Ukrainian workers who still run the factory, which has been occupied by Russian forces since the early days of the war. “The attackers’ actions caused the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to be completely disconnected from the power grid – for the first time in the plant’s history,” Energoatom said on Thursday. If all external connections go down, it will have to rely on diesel generators for power. If they break, engineers have only 90 minutes to prevent dangerous overheating. During the outage, the plant continued to receive electricity supplies from a remaining backup line connecting the plant to a nearby conventional power station, Energoatom said. There were three of these lines before the war, but two have been cut. The head of Energoatom told the Guardian on Wednesday that Russian engineers had drawn up a plan to permanently disconnect the plant from the national grid and connect it to the Russian electricity grid. The plan was apparently aimed at maintaining power to the plant in the event that all connections to Ukraine were cut off due to fighting – as happened on Thursday – Petro Kotin said. But Ukraine fears that Russia may deliberately cut the lines. Ukraine and world leaders have warned Russia not to try to change connections at the plant. They have also called on it to demilitarize the region. “We certainly don’t want that [a switch from the Ukraine national grid to the Russian one] to happen,” Bonnie Jenkins, US under secretary of state for arms control and international affairs, said on Thursday. “We continue to engage with Russia in Security Council discussions and press Russia not to do this.” The latest crisis at the factory, which has previously been threatened by fires, came as the death toll from a Russian rocket attack on a train station and village in the south-central region of Dnipropetrovsk rose to 25. The three rocket attacks also injured 31, according to Ukrainian authorities. The region was hit on the day Ukraine celebrated 31 years of independence – an anniversary overshadowed by US warnings that Russia may be planning to “intensify” attacks. Russia’s defense ministry said its forces had successfully hit a military train, killing 200 Ukrainian soldiers. It said the train was to deliver weapons to the front line in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. It is impossible to confirm the claims. Ukrainian authorities do not regularly share information about their military casualties. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. At least some of the victims appear to have been civilians. Images and footage of the aftermath broadcast by Ukraine’s Suspilne public broadcaster showed at least one destroyed house in the village and extensive damage elsewhere. Those who interviewed Suspilne said that fellow villagers had died. Kirill Tymoshenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s presidential office, said two children, aged six and 11, were killed, the latter when their home was destroyed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said five people were killed while sitting in a car. Tetiana Kvitnitska, deputy director of health at the Dnipropetrovsk regional military command, said four children were among the injured, three of them in serious condition. He said there were shrapnel wounds, burns and fractures. So far only two photos have been released of the stricken train carriages, which appear burnt and flattened in places. Tymoshenko said the impact had set fire to five passenger carriages and that a utility building at the train station had been hit. “The EU strongly condemns another terrible Russian attack on the civilian population in Chaplyny on Ukraine’s independence day. Those responsible for Russian missile terrorism will be held accountable,” EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell tweeted. Russian and Ukrainian forces have reached a relative stalemate in recent months, in part after the West supplied new long-range missiles that have hampered Russian supply lines and the ability to continue their attacks. Ukraine also says it lacks the weapons it needs to launch a decisive counterattack.
