Russia keeps moving toward restart of Zaporizhia NPP — Greenpeace report

This is reported by Greenpeace Ukraine after assessing new satellite images by Planet.

The organization reported that south of the temporarily occupied village of Shevchenko in the Zaporizhia region, Russia has installed 11 new power poles spanning 3.6 km in the village of Azovske. Additionally, between May 22 and June 3, another 10 poles were erected over 3.3 km south of the temporarily occupied village of Kliuchove in the Donetsk region. Greenpeace Ukraine stated that these actions clearly indicate Russia’s intent to illegally restart the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, disconnect it from Ukraine’s power grid, and synchronize it with the Russian system instead.

The organization noted that despite their initial investigation published on May 27, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi stated during his visit to Kyiv that "we do not have any concrete evidence that this is part of a concerted, orchestrated plan to connect the power plant in one sense or the other."

Meanwhile, Alexey Likhachev, head of Russia’s Rosatom, confirmed during a meeting with Grossi on June 6 that construction had begun on a floating modular pumping station with a capacity of up to 18,000 cubic meters per hour. According to Likhachev, this facility will resolve all water supply issues if the power units reach their design capacity.

“A comprehensive plan has been prepared, a multi-level plan for the phased commissioning of the nuclear power plant. The plan is currently being coordinated… in the government, in the Ministry of Energy, in cooperation with the grid operator,” Likhachev said during the meeting.

Senior nuclear campaigner for Greenpeace Ukraine Shaun Burnie commented on the information about the potential restart of the Zaporizhzhia NPP.

"Restarting such a large nuclear power plant as ZNPP is not a matter of one day or one month. To carry out this crime, the Russians need to make gradual preparations – and the new power lines in the occupied Ukrainian territories and the new water pumping station are evidence of this. Greenpeace Ukraine has been signaling to the IAEA and Rafael Grossi that these preparations are already underway, but for some reason the IAEA does not see these signals. We emphasize that ZNPP is exclusively Ukrainian property, and its restart by the Russians is a crime against international law with potentially catastrophic consequences for people and nature," he explained.

The Greenpeace report of May 27 indicated that Russia is actively constructing a new high-voltage power line in the temporarily occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions with the aim of illegally restarting the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) and integrating it into the Russian energy system.