IAEA warns of blackout in occupied Ukrainian nuclear power plant

The Russian-occupied nuclear power plant needs a stable power supply to cool radioactive material. The last remaining power line was damaged during fighting on August 20th. Since then, emergency generators had provided energy, but the diesel for these generators had run out in the past few days. Without repairing the power line, the nuclear facility could have experienced a blackout, the IAEA said.

The largest nuclear power plant in Europe came under Russian control shortly after the outbreak of the Ukrainian war. The six reactors are currently shut down and are not producing electricity. Before the conflict, the power plant still had ten external power lines to supply, among other things, the cooling systems.

Zelensky is hoping for negotiations before winter

Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian war of aggression for more than four and a half years. At the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin welcomed US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for talks about a possible resumption of peace negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv. No concrete results were given. Zelenskyj only reported on possible ways to de-escalate before the onset and during the winter (more on that here).

In an interview with the US news portal Axios, Zelensky said he still assumed that Moscow wanted to use the winter to put further pressure on Ukraine. "Russia really thinks that this winter could help them take us down," Zelensky said. This should force Kyiv to show more willingness to compromise. He warned that Ukraine could also exert economic pressure on Russia: "When they attacked our electricity supply, we blocked their ability to sell oil and gas."

However, Ukraine wants to restart the diplomatic negotiation process. "We have September and October to talk," said Zelensky. "There can be no result without dialogue." He assumes that US President Donald Trump will find a way to start the negotiation process before winter.