Russia damages four key nuclear power plant substations in Ukraine - IAEA

“Four of these substations and their power lines were struck again during attacks on the night of Nov. 16 and early morning of Nov. 17, prompting operating nuclear power plants to reduce electricity production as a precaution,” the message wrote.

Although power plants had started restoring transmission lines and increasing output in recent days, they again reduced production as a precaution, before resuming normal operations later.

Additionally, the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant disconnected two of its 750 kV transmission lines on Nov. 21 for maintenance, relying on backup systems for electricity supply during the downtime.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi expressed growing concern over the instability of Ukraine’s power grid.

“The increasing instability of Ukraine’s energy system is an escalating source of concern for the nuclear safety of all plants,” he said.

IAEA teams had assessed damage at seven substations in September and October, finding significant destruction that severely undermined the network's ability to reliably supply external power to Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, he added.

Despite this instability, IAEA teams stationed at the Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, South Ukraine, and Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plants reported that nuclear safety is being maintained.

Earlier reports indicated that Russia also targeted three of five DTEK-owned operational thermal power plants in its latest wave of attacks.