Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has announced a significant $90 billion arms agreement with the United States. Simultaneously, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, occupied by Russian forces, enters its fifth day running on emergency generators, raising serious safety concerns.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility, the largest in Europe, has seen a record outage spanning over four days. This development follows earlier reports that the plant has been relying on emergency diesel generators to power its crucial cooling and safety systems. The external power to the plant was severed on Tuesday, according to the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Failure to cool the reactor core and used nuclear fuel could instigate dangerous meltdowns, reminiscent of the disaster encountered in Japan’s Fukushima plant in 2011. The U.N. atomic watchdog has warned of a possible radiation catastrophe akin to the devastating explosion at Chernobyl in 1986, located about 300 miles northwest of the plant.
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The cause of the power outage, according to Ukraine’s Minister of Energy Svitlana Hrynchuk, was yet another shelling by Russian forces, which damaged the sole power transmission line supplying the plant from the Ukrainian energy system. This raises important questions about the long-term sustainability of the emergency measures in place and the potential consequences of prolonged power loss.
Radiation and nuclear energy specialist at Greenpeace Ukraine, Jan Vande Putte, has highlighted the seriousness of the situation, noting that “emergency diesel generators are considered the last line of defense, used only in extreme circumstances.” He further warned that Russia’s “deliberate actions” had led to the plant’s disconnection from the Ukrainian external power grid.
President Zelenskyy has also criticized Hungary for its “dangerous” drone activities over Ukraine. In a briefing on Saturday in Kyiv, Zelenskyy detailed the “mega deal” for weapons purchases from the United States, with technical meetings starting in late September. This package includes a significant arms agreement and a separate “drone deal” for Ukrainian-made drones that the U.S. will purchase directly.
Zelenskyy also disclosed the operation of an Israeli Patriot air defense system in Ukraine for the past month, with two additional systems expected to arrive in the fall. However, Israel’s Defense Ministry has not commented on this matter.