ST. PETERSBURG, June 14. /TASS/. The Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) will source water from artesian wells if the water level in the Kakhovka Reservoir falls below ten meters, Zaporozhye Region Acting Governor Yevgeny Balitsky told reporters on Wednesday.

"Thank God, the Soviet Union carried out a lot of work and, apart from water from the Dnieper River, we also have artesian wells. So, even if the water level, which currently stands at 11.34 meters, falls below ten meters, we will be able to ensure the facility’s operation by using our artesian wells," Balitsky said on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

On the morning of June 6, the Ukrainian armed forces delivered a strike on the Kakhovka Hydro Power Plant (HPP), destroying the hydraulic sluice valves on the dam and triggering an uncontrolled discharge of water. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that the Zaporozhye NPP continued to pump water from the Kakhovka Reservoir to cool its reactors. The water level keeps falling five to seven centimeters per hour following the collapse of the dam at the Kakhovka HPP.