(Reuters) –ukrainian shelling and drone attacks caused electricity loss on parts of the Russian controlled area in the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions in southern Ukraine, said officials of Russia installed that early Tuesday on Tuesday.
Officials said there was no effect on operations at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant – the largest nuclear facility of Europe that was seized by Russia in the weeks after the Moscow invasion in February 2022 in Ukraine.
Russian officials who ran the factory said that the radiation levels were normal in the facility, which works in the closing mode and currently does not produce any electricity.
By the Governors installed in Russia in the two regions said that the Ukrainian attacks led the authorities to introduce emergency measures and change important sites to reserve power sources.
The power was eliminated to all parts of Zaporizhzhia under Russian control, wrote the Governor Yevgeny Belitsky installed by Russia on Telegram.
“As a result of shelling by the Ukrainian forces, high -voltage equipment was damaged in the northwestern part of the Zaporizhzhia region,” Belitsky wrote.
“There is no electricity throughout the region. The Ministry of Energy of Zaporizhzhia has been instructed to develop spare sources of power. Healthcare sites have been transferred to reserve power sources.”
In adjacent Kherson region, further to the West, Russia-appointed Governor Vladimir Baldo said that debris of fallen drones had damaged two substations, which eliminated power to more than 100,000 inhabitants of 150 cities and villages in Russian areas. Emergency services that work to quickly restore power, he said.
For many long months in the winter, Ukrainian cities and villages that endured repeated electricity savings were because Russian attacks concentrated on generating capacity.
Each party has repeatedly accused the others of launching attacks at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the risk of a nuclear accident.
The Nuclear Waakhond from the UN, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said last week in response to a Ukrainian complaint that it did not see that Russia was preparing to restart the Zaporizhia factory and connect with the Russian grid.
The IAEA has permanently stationed monitors on the other nuclear power stations of Zaporizhzhia and Ukraine.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; adaptation by Franklin Paul, Ron Popeski and Stephen Coates)
