MELITOPOL, March 3. /TASS/. The overnight artillery shelling of Energodar by Ukrainian forces did not affect the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), around which a ceasefire has been declared for power line repairs. The situation at the plant is stable, Yevgenia Yashina, the plant’s communications director, told TASS.

"The situation at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant is stable. The overnight shelling of Energodar did not affect the plant. The area around the nuclear facility is currently calm; there have been no airstrikes," Yashina said.

Energodar is a satellite city of the Zaporozhye NPP. Plant workers and their families live there. Earlier, Energodar Mayor Maxim Pukhov announced that the Ukrainian armed forces shelled the city with artillery. The strike hit the courtyard of an apartment building, injuring a civilian. Many apartments were left without windows, and parked cars were damaged.

On February 27, CEO of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom Alexey Likhachev said that a local ceasefire has been in effect since 7:00 a.m. Moscow time (4:00 a.m. GMT) in the area surrounding the Zaporozhye NPP. This has allowed repair crews, including Rosatom engineers, to begin work on restoring the Zaporozhye Thermal Power Plant’s open switchgear and the Ferrosplavnaya line, damaged on February 10 by shelling from Ukrainian forces.

Since then, the station has been powered by the only Dneprovskaya power line. Due to the complexity of the work, the repairs will take at least a week. Agreements to establish a local ceasefire in the area of the Zaporozhye NPP for repairs to the Zaporozhye Thermal Power Plant’s open switchgear and the external power supply line of the Ferrosplavnaya-1 station were reached with the participation of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi, with the support of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Russian National Guard, and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and under the auspices of Rosatom.

On March 2, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi stated that the situation at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant remained extremely difficult due to problems with its power supply. However, repair work to restore the plant’s external power supply line is continuing under the supervision of the international agency’s specialists.