(Reuters) – Ukraine’s foreign minister on Sunday accused Russia of deliberately cutting the external power line to the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to connect the plant to Moscow’s power grid.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Moscow was trying to test a reconnection to the Russian network.
Ukraine has long feared that Moscow will try to redirect the plant’s production to its network. But Russian officials have denied any intention to try to restart the plant, captured by Moscow’s forces in the first weeks of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The plant is not producing electricity at this time, but has been without an external electricity source for almost three weeks. Officials have relied on emergency diesel generators to ensure the power needed to keep fuel fresh within the facility and protect against a meltdown.
“Russia intentionally broke the plant’s connection with the Ukrainian network to forcibly test reconnection with the Russian network,” Sybiha wrote in X in English. He denounced the “attempted theft of a Ukrainian nuclear facility for peaceful purposes.”
“Moscow is trying to deceive the IAEA and the entire technical and diplomatic community by pretending that the problem is caused by someone other than itself,” Sybiha said.
Each side has accused the other of the bombings that caused the line to be cut.
The IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said last week that the process of restoring the external link was underway and has repeatedly called on both sides to refrain from actions that compromise nuclear security.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his late-night video address that it was not in Russia’s interest to restore security at the plant. He said the IAEA needed to establish “a clearer and more honest position.”
There was no immediate Russian reaction to the Ukrainian accusations.
Last week, the Interfax news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying there were no reasons to restart the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant for now in the absence of an external power source. Before that report, Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom was quoted as saying it was preparing to restart the plant.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by David Gregorio)