Saying that Russia should accept that the vicinity of the plant becomes a demilitarized zone, Kirby said, “A controlled shutdown of the plant would be the safest option.” Kirby stated that the administration of US President Joe Biden supported the visit made to the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant in the south of Ukraine under the leadership of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“Ukraine counterattacked”
Kirby also noted that Ukraine has launched a counterattack to recapture areas in southern Ukraine that had previously been captured by Russia. Noting that the Ukrainians had an impact on the Russian military capabilities, Kirby said, “The Russians had to withdraw resources from the east due to news that the Ukrainians might launch further attacks in the south. So they had to reduce certain units in certain areas in the east of the Donbass, clearly fearing the threat of a counterattack.” said.
“The attempts of the Ukrainian army to attack in Kherson and Mykolaiv failed”
In the statement made by the Russian Ministry of Defense, it was announced that the attack attempts of the Ukrainian army in Kherson and Mykolaiv regions were unsuccessful, and it was stated that the Ukrainian army suffered heavy losses during these attacks. “The enemy’s attempt to attack failed miserably,” the ministry said.
Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant was disconnected from the national electricity grid for the first time
In a statement made by the Ukrainian State Nuclear Energy Company Energoatom on August 25, it was stated that the power lines connecting the nuclear power plant to the grid were damaged due to fires near the last two working reactors of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, and therefore its connection to the national electricity grid was cut off for the first time in history.
In the statement made by the IAEA, it was stated that the electricity supply to the power plant was restored later in the day, and it was stated that “Ukraine told the IAEA that the Zaporizhia NPP lost its connection to the power line at least twice during the day, but it is now open again.”
While the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant has 6 nuclear reactors and an electricity generation capacity of 5,700 megawatt-hours, the power plant provides 20 percent of the total electricity in Ukraine.