The Ukrainian leader said the world narrowly avoided a disaster at the Zaporizhzhia facility, which is reportedly used as a base by Kremlin troops. It blamed shelling by Russian forces for the fires at a nearby coal-fired power station that disconnected the reactor complex at the nuclear plant from the power grid. President Zelenskyy said backup diesel generators have started to ensure power supply and keep the plant safe. “If our station staff had not reacted after the blackout, then we would have already had to overcome the consequences of a radioactive accident,” he said in his nightly speech. “Russia has brought Ukraine and all Europeans to a situation one step away from a nuclear disaster.” Earlier this week, Ukraine’s defense intelligence service said Russia was preparing new “provocations” at the plant. Image: A Russian soldier stands guard in an area of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Photo: AP Moscow forces seized the plant in March after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and have controlled it since, although it is still operated by Ukrainian technicians. Nuclear experts have warned of the risk of damage to the Zaporizhzhia plant’s spent nuclear fuel tanks or its reactors. Power cuts needed to cool the pools could cause a catastrophic collapse. Read more: Putin to increase size of Russian armed forces by 137,000 by 2023 The prospect of an accident at such a large nuclear facility brings to mind the specters of the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl’s Number 4 reactor. The United Nations is seeking access to the Zaporizhzhia plant and has called for the area to be demilitarized. US President Joe Biden – who spoke by phone with President Zelensky on Thursday – demanded that the plant be returned to Ukraine. The White House also called on Russia to agree to a “demilitarized zone around the plant.” Elsewhere in the conflict, the Russian Defense Ministry claims its forces destroyed eight Ukrainian warplanes in raids on air bases in Ukraine’s Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk regions. This would be one of the heaviest losses for Ukraine’s air force in recent weeks.
