“Nuclear Power Plant Disconnects from Grid Amid Russian Missile Attacks in Ukraine”

Russia’s latest missile strikes on Ukraine caused widespread damage to the country’s infrastructure and left a nuclear power plant struggling to keep operating. The barrage of missiles hit various Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, early on Thursday, killing at least five people and injuring several others. The attack also targeted energy infrastructure and residential buildings, causing extensive damage across the country.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under Russian control, lost its electric power supply due to the missile attack. The Energoatom state company said that the last link between the occupied plant and the Ukrainian power system was cut off, leaving the plant with just 10 days of power from generators. The fifth and sixth reactor had to be shut down, and electric power needed for the plant’s functioning is now supplied by 18 diesel generators.

Russian-installed officials in the Moscow-controlled part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region dismissed the halt in electricity supplies to the plant from Ukrainian-held territory as “a provocation.” It came as Russia unleashed a wave of missile strikes across Ukraine, targeting not only the power plant but also energy infrastructure and residential buildings in Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zhytomyr regions.

The missile strikes caused widespread chaos and destruction across the country, with air raid sirens wailing for hours and defense systems being activated. It is unclear how many missiles struck targets or were intercepted. At least 40% of residents in the capital Kyiv were left without heating because of emergency power cuts following the blasts. Ukrainian Railways reported power outages in certain areas, with 15 trains delayed up to an hour.

Ukraine’s Energy Minister condemned the missile strikes as “another barbaric massive attack on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine,” saying that the facilities in Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zhytomyr regions had been targeted. The missile attacks caused damage in two districts in Kyiv, while the Kharkiv and Odesa governors reported that residential buildings were hit there.

In the western region, four people were killed after a missile hit a residential area in the Zolochivskyi district, according to the Governor. Emergency workers were combing through the rubble, under which more people could be trapped.

In eastern Ukraine, 15 missiles struck Kharkiv and the outlying northeastern region, hitting residential buildings. “Objects of critical infrastructure are again in the crosshairs of the occupants,” he said in a Telegram post.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov reported on Telegram that there were “problems with electricity” in some parts of the city. The governor of the southern Odesa region, also reported strikes on Odesa, saying that energy facilities and residential buildings were hit. Marchenko warned for people to stay in shelters. Preventive emergency power cuts were applied in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Odesa regions, supplier DTEK said.

More explosions were reported in the northern city of Chernihiv and the western Lviv region, as well as in the cities of Dnipro, Lutsk, and Rivne