Power restored to Zaporizhzhia plant after shelling
A power line supplying the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine that was cut by shelling on Saturday has been reconnected, the UN nuclear watchdog's chief said on Sunday. The shelling had forced the plant, which is in cold shutdown, to switch to diesel power. Its reconnection was announced, however, by the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi. On Twitter, he called it "a temporary relief in a still untenable situation" and repeated calls for a protection zone around the plant. Ukraine's state nuclear company Energoatom confirmed that engineers had restored the external power supply to the plant. "After almost two days of operating the emergency cooling pumps of the active zones of the reactors with power from diesel generators, the operational staff are restoring the normal regimen of powering the plant's own needs from the energy system of Ukraine," Energoatom wrote on Telegram. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said a Russian missile attack struck an apartment block and other residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia city, some 52 kilometres from the plant, killing at least 13 people and wounding 89 others. Elsewhere, rail services and partial road traffic resumed a day after a powerful blast damaged a bridge linking Russia to Crimea that is a key supply route to Moscow's forces battling in southern Ukraine and an imposing symbol of its annexation of the peninsula. Saturday's explosion on the bridge over the Kerch Strait prompted gleeful messages from Ukrainian officials but no claim of responsibility. Russia did not immediately assign blame for the blast, which images showed blew away half of a section of the bridge's roadway, with the other half still attached. The pre-dawn strikes on Zaporizhzhia on Sunday were the second such attack against the city in three days. Russian aircraft launched at least 12 missiles, partially destroying a nine-storey apartment block, levelling five other residential buildings and damaging many more, Oleksandr Starukh, governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, said on state-run television. At least 13 people were killed and 89 others were wounded, 60 of whom were hospitalized, Ukrainian officials said. The wounded included 11 children. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the attack as "absolute evil" by people he called "savages and terrorists", vowing those responsible would be brought to justice. Zaporizhzhia city has been under frequent shelling in recent weeks, with 19 people having been killed on Thursday. (Reuters)