Overview

• On July 4 the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant lost all off-site power—its ninth total blackout since the war began and the first since late 2023—forcing it onto emergency diesel generators.
• Ukraine’s energy minister attributed the outage to a Russian strike that severed the final external power line, though Russia’s-installed managers gave no initial cause.
• Power was restored after about 3½ hours, but the plant’s six shutdown reactors still require uninterrupted cooling to prevent fuel overheating.
• IAEA chief Rafael Grossi described the situation as “extremely precarious,” renewing calls for unfettered access and a demilitarized safety zone around Europe’s largest nuclear facility.
• The incident highlights persistent vulnerabilities at the Russian-occupied plant, which remains close to front-line combat and has frequently been caught in mutual shelling accusations.