Ukraine’s nuclear power plants were forced to reduce capacity due to the strike by the Russian Federation and the IAEA

A massive Russian strike on the night of December 6 forced Ukrainian nuclear power plants to reduce power, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“Large-scale military operations that lasted throughout the night affected the power grid and forced the operating nuclear power plants of Ukraine to reduce power. Director General Raffaele Grossi again calls for military restraint to avoid a nuclear accident,” said a message posted on the X social network.

In addition, the IAEA said that overnight the Zaporizhia NPP temporarily lost all external power supply, which was the 11th such incident since the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion.

“The ZNPP restored the connection to the 330 kV transmission line after a half-hour outage, but the 750 kV line is still disconnected,” the IAEA said.

The Ukrainian authorities said that energy facilities were the main target of large-scale Russian shelling on the night of December 6.

The Ministry of Energy reported that on the night of December 6, the Russian military launched a massive missile-drone attack on electricity generation, distribution and transmission facilities in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Lviv, Odesa, Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions. As a result of the attack, consumers in Odesa, Chernihiv, Kyiv, and Kharkiv were cut off in the morning, the ministry said.

According to the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, on the night of December 6, the Russian military launched a combined attack on the critical infrastructure of Ukraine using attack UAVs and missiles. The military specified that Russia used 51 missiles and 653 drones for the air attack.

“According to preliminary data, as of 10:00 a.m., 615 air targets were shot down/suppressed by air defense: 585 enemy UAVs of the Shahed, Gerber type (unmanned aerial vehicles of other types); 29 Kh-101/Iskander-K/Kalibr cruise missiles; one Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missile,” the message reads.

According to the Air Force, missiles and 60 strike UAVs were hit at 29 locations, as well as falling debris at three locations.

“Ukrenergo” reported that the volumes of previously forecasted restrictions on electricity consumption on December 6 were “forced to increase” – after the Russian strike.