Residents living near the site of a Ukrainian nuclear power plant that has been taken over by Russian forces released a desperate video appeal Thursday as the plant—the largest in Europe—was “completely” disconnected from the power grid for the first time ever amid Russian hostilities.
Ukraine’s Energoatom, the state enterprise in charge of the plant, said fires around the plant allegedly set by Russian troops had cut off the final transmission line providing power, and “as a result, two operating units of the power plant were disconnected from the grid.”
“The actions of the invaders caused a complete disconnection… from the power grid for the first time in the history of the plant,” the agency warned, adding that one remaining backup line was still able to supply power to the plant.
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Russia’s RIA Novosti, meanwhile, quoted Russian-backed authorities who said the nuclear power plant’s emergency systems kicked in and a “reconnection” was made.
The alarming announcement came after experts repeatedly warned in recent weeks that if cooling of the spent-fuel pool and reactors at the plant is interrupted, it could lead to a meltdown that would release radiation into the atmosphere.
“Start-up operations are underway to connect one of the power units to the network,” Energoatom said. The monitoring group NetBlocks said it had detected a “major disruption to communications” at the plant.
Just hours before the worrying news, residents of the city released a two-minute video pleading for help to stop a brewing disaster. The video, posted on YouTube and shared in Ukrainian media, showed a group of four people with covered faces begging for intervention against Russian troops.
“We, the residents of Enerhodar, appeal to you in total despair with a request for help. Today we, workers of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, are hostage to Russian troops,” a man in the video said, warning that they “are threatening the whole world with a nuclear catastrophe” and “taking cover with us and our children.”
“The occupiers are carrying out genocide on the land of Enerhodar. We can’t go out on the street of our city, our children live in fear.… Our people are just snatched up off the street and taken in an unknown direction,” the man said, adding that those who’ve been taken simply vanished.
With regular shelling on the territory of the nuclear plant, he said, “we are fearing the worst results.”
The appeal is just the latest ominous warning to come out of the Zaporizhzhia region as authorities there say Russia continues to push the whole world to the brink of a Chernobyl-scale disaster by refusing to demilitarize the area around the nuclear plant in Enerhodar—the largest in Europe. While Russia has routinely accused Ukraine’s military of shelling the vicinity, Ukrainian defense officials say Vladimir Putin’s army is cynically using the plant as both a propaganda ploy and shield for its own attacks.
Ukrainian authorities warned this week that Russian shelling around the plant had struck ash from the plant that contains high levels of radiation, stirring up “radioactive dust.”
Radiation levels were still said to be normal in the city as of Thursday, but Mayor Dmitry Orlov said the city was “on the brink of a humanitarian disaster” after the water and electricity supply was cut off. Local authorities blamed the devastating new development on Russian forces deliberately setting fires in forests around the city.
