Ukrainian atomic plant 'has two weeks of power left to keep nuclear fuel cool' after being forced onto backup generators by power cut - as 600,000 people plunged into darkness by Russian strikes

Published: 07:46 EDT, 8 November 2026 | Updated: 07:46 EDT, 8 November 2026 A Ukrainian atomic plant reportedly has two weeks of power left after the country was plunged into darkness following a series of air strikes.The Russian-controlled energy facility is relying on backup generators for reactor cooling, the plant's manager and the UN's nuclear watchdog said on Sunday.Zaporizhzhia, which produces no ​electricity but needs power supplied by two external links to keep nuclear fuel cool, is believed to have lost its off-site electricity supply after a power line disconnected.The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the 'cause of the latest disconnection' was not yet known, adding the plant currently has enough fuel reserves to operate a limited number of emergency diesel generators for about two weeks.In early September, a local ceasefire brokered by the IAEA took effect to allow repairs to restore external power to Zaporizhzhia, which at the time had been without it since August 20.Russia seized the nuclear plant, Europe's largest with six reactors, in the first weeks of recent conflict that began with Moscow's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.Moscow and Kyiv ​have since regularly accused each other of military action that compromises nuclear safety.The plant's Russian-installed management said the Ferosplavna line had been shut down by 'automatic protection', adding that radiation levels on the site and in the surveillance zone were normal. Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is seen from the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir near the town of Nikopol'Staff at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are monitoring all operational parameters of the equipment. All necessary measures to maintain the safe condition of the power units are being taken in full,' the plant's management said in a statement posted on the MAX messenger app.Meanwhile Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes Sunday, while a new drone hit a village humanitarian aid centre attacked this week where rescuers dug out bodies.In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, 'more than 600,000 residents of the region have been left without power', power company DTEK said on Telegram after a 'night attack damaged important energy facilities'.It said the company was working to restore electricity but the task was 'complicated by repeated attacks'.In another strike, a Russian drone hit 'a critical infrastructure facility' in the northeastern Kharkiv region, the mayor of Zlatopil city, Mykola Baksheyev, said on social media.'Nearly 250,000 customers in the Kharkiv region were left without power,' Mr Baksheyev said.Repair works were underway but 'the exact time for restoring power supply is still unknown,' he added.President Volodymyr Zelensky said the night-time strikes had triggered 'widespread power outages across the country'. A Russian service member stands guard at a checkpoint near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant'In the Zhytomyr region alone, 140 apartment buildings were left without heating following a Russian strike,' he said, as temperatures in Ukraine already hovered around freezing.He also said Russia had launched a drone at Komyshuvakha – a village in the Zaporizhzhia region where Moscow had hit an aid distribution centre on Monday in one of the deadliest attacks of the war.The death toll has risen to 55 people, Mr Zelensky said. Emergency services previously put it at 50 killed.'This morning, the Russians attacked Komyshuvakha with an FPV drone, where emergency rescue operations have been underway for seven days... Unfortunately, more people may still be under the rubble,' Zelensky said.The strikes came a day after Ukraine's energy ministry said a massive attack on energy facilities had plunged residents in five regions into darkness and significantly hampered electricity transmission in Kyiv.Mr Zelensky has accused Russia of intensifying strikes to put pressure on Kyiv at US-brokered trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.Russia has battered Ukraine's energy grid and infrastructure throughout its four-and-a-half-year invasion and Kyiv was now entering another war-time winter.