Volodymyr Zelenskyy (AP)
A Russian strike on an energy facility in the town of Slavutych, Kyiv Oblast, caused a several-hour blackout at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant on Oct. 1, the Energy Ministry reported. Slavutych, located in northern Ukraine, was built to house personnel evacuated from the plant after the 1986 disaster.The energy ministry reported an “emergency situation” at multiple facilities inside the Chornobyl plant.”Due to power surges, the New Safe Confinement, the key structure that isolates the destroyed 4th reactor of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and prevents the release of radioactive materials into the environment, was left without electricity,” the statement read, as cited by the Kyiv Independent. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of endangering global security after Kyiv reported that shelling by Russian forces cut power to the defunct Chornobyl nuclear plant.“Half-hearted or weak measures will not fix the situation. Every day that Russia prolongs the war, refuses to implement a full and reliable ceasefire, and continues striking all objects of our energy infrastructure – including those critical to the safety of nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities – is a global threat,” Zelenskyy said through a post on X. He said Russia knowingly carried out a deliberate strike on Slavutych using over 20 drones, fully aware it would affect Chornobyl.The UN’s nuclear watchdog reported that the blackout disrupted power to Chornobyl’s confinement structure, which contains the plant’s damaged reactor core, and that electricity is now being supplied by two emergency diesel generators.The energy ministry announced by late October 1 that power had been fully restored to all facilities at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant following the outage. It also confirmed that radiation levels at the site remain normal and do not pose any threat to the public.The incident happened only eight days after the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine lost power. The plant, Europe’s largest and under Russian control since March 2022, has now been cut off from Ukraine’s electricity grid for over 100 hours, the longest outage on record.Zelenskyy described the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant as “critical,” noting that while diesel generators are currently supplying power, one has already failed.
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