(Reuters) -A Russian official said on Tuesday that work would begin this week to restore external power links to the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, which has been running on emergency diesel generators for three weeks.
Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia plant in the first weeks of Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Each side has accused the other of conducting military action that caused the last external line to go down on July 23.
“Active preparations are underway at this time,” Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international bodies in Vienna, told the Russian state news agency RIA.
“We expect the repair work on both power transmission lines to start at the end of this week.”
In order for the work to be carried out, Ulyanov said, “it is vital to agree on a local ceasefire in areas where the repair work is to be carried out”.
The Vienna-based U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has repeatedly called on both sides to refrain from actions compromising nuclear safety.
The plant, Europe’s largest with six reactors, produces no electricity at the moment, but needs power to keep fuel inside it cool and prevent any possibility of a meltdown.
Rafael Grossi, the IAEA’s Director General, has said the diesel generators are providing the power needed and has been working with both sides to get the external links restored.
Ukraine’s foreign minister accused Russia on Sunday of deliberately severing the external power line to the station in order to link it to Moscow’s power grid.
A top Russian diplomat this month denied that Russia had any intention of restarting the plant.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
