For more than four years the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has remained under the control of Russian troops, and all this time Moscow has been trying to shift the responsibility for the danger around the plant onto Ukraine. At a press conference Greenpeace Ukraine presented a new analysis of Russia’s claims about alleged Ukrainian attacks on the ZAP, backed by satellite imagery, expert testimony and years of monitoring the situation in Enerhodar and surrounding communities.
The organization began systematically monitoring Ukrainian nuclear plants in the first days of the full‑scale invasion. When Russian forces seized the Chernobyl plant, Greenpeace immediately declared that the next target would be the Zaporizhzhia NPP – the largest nuclear plant in Europe. The prediction came true in a matter of weeks. In the summer of 2022 the organization’s team arrived in Ukraine at the invitation of the government to document the consequences of the occupation of Chernobyl, and since then has remained in the country, collecting evidence, conducting monitoring and presenting results to the international community – notably through satellite images and the involvement of independent Ukrainian and foreign experts.
Analysis of Transmission Line Damage Disproves Russia’s Version
A key part of the presentation was a detailed breakdown of the incident with the high‑voltage Dniprovskaya line, rated at 750 kV. In the fall of last year the connection to this line was severed, and the Russian side claimed that Ukrainian artillery fire was the cause, leaving the plant on backup diesel power for 30 days – a regime that nuclear safety specialists consider critical.
Senior Greenpeace Ukraine nuclear energy expert Sean Berny presented satellite images of the damaged section of the line, obtained in collaboration with analysts specializing in intelligence analysis of satellite data. The images show no signs of shell impact near the damaged pole or in the surrounding area, so the artillery‑fire version is not confirmed. According to Berny, the nature of the damage points more to sabotage by the Russian Federation itself, which controls this area of territory.
Greenpeace particularly highlights the fact that for all thirty days the plant operated on diesel generators, the Russian side had the physical ability to repair the damage – experts estimate that repair could take from a day to two. This did not happen, and the crisis lasted as long as it was profitable for those in charge.
A broader review that Greenpeace submitted to the IAEA Board of Governors this spring covers the period from February 2025 to February 2026 and records a series of similar sabotage and damage incidents, each of which the organization attributes to Russian actions. No evidence has ever indicated Ukrainian involvement.
Dniprovskaya Substation and Threat to the Country’s Energy System
This spring the situation worsened again. In March the line over the Dnipro suffered serious damage, and in May the Dniprovskaya substation, located about a hundred kilometres north of the plant, was severely damaged. Even after the line itself was restored in the summer, power supply to the ZAP was not restored because the substation was damaged – and replacing the 750 kV transformers, each weighing hundreds of tonnes, cannot be done quickly.
According to Yan Vandepute, a Greenpeace radiation and nuclear safety expert, this means the substation will remain inoperable for many months, and the line will remain de‑energised. The problem extends far beyond a single plant: the same infrastructure is critical for the operation of other Ukrainian nuclear plants, including the South‑Ukrainian plant, so substation damage directly affects the stability of the entire country’s energy system ahead of winter.
Greenpeace has tallied fourteen similar attacks on energy infrastructure since the full‑scale invasion, and, according to the organization’s experts, Russia has publicly announced its intention to continue and intensify strikes on the energy grid in the coming weeks and months.
Why the Stopped Plant Still Poses a Risk
The Zaporizhzhia NPP has not produced electricity since September 2022, but that does not mean there is no danger. Nuclear fuel in the reactors is gradually cooling, but the process is stretched over time, and the plant, according to Vandepute, still critically depends on external power supply to cool the active zones of six reactors. He reminded that there are twelve sources of radiation danger on site, and even after the reactor stops, the core remains the most vulnerable element for a long time.
A complete loss of power does not lead to an immediate accident – experts estimate that the window ranges from a few hours to a few weeks, depending on the state of the cooling pool, before the situation becomes critical. But this time buffer, Vandepute emphasised, is not a reason for complacency: Rosatom staff, who run the plant, lack the necessary qualifications and personnel resources for safe operation of such a complex facility, and some Russian actions appear outright disingenuous.
Disinformation Campaign and the Role of the IAEA
Polina Kolyodzhyana – Greenpeace Ukraine project leader – pointed out that accusations against Ukraine spread not only through Russian state media – Moscow regularly sends official verbal notes to the IAEA, seeking international recognition of its version of events. This, she said, blurs the main fact: the nuclear plant was illegally seized and is held by Russia, and its daily actions create new risks for global nuclear safety.
A separate topic of the presentation was the meeting between IAEA Director‑General Rafael Grossi and Rosatom head Oleksiy Likhachov, which took place during the agency’s recent session in Vienna. According to Kolyodzhyana, Likhachov received applause from delegations of countries that support cooperation with Rosatom for political and commercial reasons – the corporation continues to supply nuclear technology to external markets. At the same meeting Grossi confirmed the intention to continue cooperation with the Russian side regarding safety at the ZAP.
Olga Kosharna, an atomic energy expert, reminded during the discussion of Rosatom’s influence on IAEA personnel policy, notably through former deputy CEO Mykhailo Chudakov, who was removed from duties in early September. Over four and a half years of occupation, she noted, cooperation between Rosatom and IAEA structures has not decreased, but rather expanded, including educational programmes for countries that are only considering developing their own nuclear energy. Currently, among leading Western states, sanctions against Rosatom have been introduced only by the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and Ukraine – the European Union has not taken this step.
Greenpeace also pointed out the practice of rotating IAEA mission staff at the ZAP through temporarily occupied Russian territory, which has been ongoing since last spring. In Verhyn, they emphasised that this is not just about logistical convenience, but about gradual legal normalisation of the status of the occupied plant – step by step, through procedural decisions that at first glance appear technical.
Ukrainian Engineers and the Cost of Repairs Under Fire
Participants of the press conference separately emphasised that the cessation of fire in the plant’s zone is not bilateral in the sense sometimes presented. According to Berny, Ukrainian engineers who travel to repair damaged lines near the ZAP do so under constant threat – including drone and artillery attacks, especially in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Agreements on temporary ceasefire give them only limited safety guarantees for work, and this depends solely on the Russian side’s willingness not to attack at that moment.
The situation with the line in September last year, Berny said, best illustrates this: Russia publicly stated it could not repair the damage because the line is on temporarily occupied territory, even though there were no obstacles to repair from Ukraine, according to available evidence.
The Human Dimension of Occupation and a Call to Action
Concluding the press conference, Polina Kolyodzhyana reminded that the history of the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia plant is not only a story about reactors and transmission lines. The partner organisation True Hounds documented cases of abduction, psychological and physical violence against plant workers, who effectively became hostages to Russian soldiers. Greenpeace urges the Ukrainian and international public and media not to limit themselves to reacting to isolated threatening incidents, but to keep the issue of illegal occupation of the plant in the constant information field – until de‑occupation becomes possible under safe conditions, and staff and the facility return under full Ukrainian control.
The organisation also insists on two consecutive steps: removing Russian troops from the plant and severing international cooperation with Rosatom, including the introduction of sanctions against the corporation by countries that have not yet done so. Simultaneously, Greenpeace points to the need for structural changes in Ukrainian energy – development of decentralised generation, solar energy and energy storage systems as a way to reduce the country’s vulnerability to similar attacks in the future.
Read also:
How the Network of Public Spaces for Youth and Activists is Growing in Ukraine
