MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/. Ukraine’s army has shelled the territory of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant again, causing fire and damaging two power lines crucial to the operation of the power units, the military-civilian administration of Energodar has said.

"Today, during the shift change at the NPP at about 15:00, nationalist forces in the territory controlled by the Ukrainian criminal regime fired artillery shells at the power plant’s territory. As a result of the terrorist attack two power lines supplying electricity to an open 750 kW switchgear crucial to the safe operation of the NPP’s power units were damaged. At present, a fire is on at the site. The personnel of the special fire-fighting unit have arrived to extinguish the blaze," the military-civilian administration’s telegram channel says.

The administration said that it is not yet possible to start localizing the fire, because the broken power lines are energized and there is a high risk of precipitation. The military-civilian administrations of Energodar and the Zaporozhye region are taking measures to normalize the nuclear power plant’s operation as soon as possible.

The Zaporozhye NPP is the largest in Europe. It produced a quarter of Ukraine’s electricity. The total capacity of its six reactors is about 6,000 megawatts. Since 1996, the Zaporozhye NPP has been a separate division of the Ukraine-controlled national nuclear energy generating company Energoatom. In March 2022, the facility was taken over by Russian forces. At the moment the power plant operates at 70% of its capacity, because there is an oversupply of electricity in the liberated territory of the Zaporozhye Region. There are plans for arranging electricity supply to Crimea.