Following Russia’s nighttime missile bombardment in Ukraine, the largest nuclear power facility in Europe is currently in a condition of blackout.
According to nuclear state operator Energoatom, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power facility, which is controlled by Russian soldiers, lost electricity last night.
Since being seized by Russia months ago, this is the sixth time the station has had plenty of power, forcing it to rely on 18 diesel generators that can keep the station running for 10 days.
Rafael Grossi, the nuclear chief for the UN, has issued a warning on the site’s ongoing power failures.
He said: ‘Each time we are rolling a dice, and if we allow this to continue time after time then one day our luck will run out.’
It comes after Russia fired more than 80 missiles, with Ukraine’s military saying eight drones were involved.
Nuclear plants need constant power to run cooling systems and avoid a meltdown.
‘The countdown has begun,’ Energoatom said.
Ukraine’s energy minister Herman Halushchenko condemned the missile strikes as ‘another barbaric massive attack on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine’.
Smoke seen rising from Kyiv’s Thermoelectric Power Plant following Russian strike
He said facilities in Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr regions have been targeted.
Four people died in the Lviv region after a missile hit a residential area, governor Maksym Kozytskyi said.
Three buildings were gutted by fire after the strike and rescue workers were combing through rubble looking for more possible victims.
A fifth person was killed and two others hurt in multiple strikes in the Dnipropetrovsk region which targeted its energy infrastructure and industrial facilities, governor Serhii Lysak said.
Air raid sirens wailed through the night across Ukraine, including the capital, Kyiv, where explosions happened in two western areas of the city.
Smoke rises over Kyiv after overnight Russian missile strikes
Defence systems were activated around the country and it was not clear how many missiles hit targets or were intercepted.
The alarm in Kyiv was lifted just before 8am, with the air raid sirens falling silent after seven hours
The missile barrage hit as Russia pushed its advance in Ukraine’s eastern stronghold of Bakhmut, where a grinding fight between the two sides has gone on for six months and reduced the city to a smouldering wasteland.
The last major Russian offensive took place on February 16.