Record comms failure hits Russian-occupied ZNPP amid increased military activity

Both landline telephone lines and internet connections failed at the ZNPP for approximately 12 hours on May 27, marking the longest incident at the plant since the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.

"The cause of the outage was not immediately clear, but it coincided with reports of shelling in the city of Enerhodar, where most of the plant's staff lives," the statement reads.

"It provided another reminder of the continuous challenges to nuclear safety and security and to preventing accidents during the conflict, at the ZNPP as well as at Ukraine's operating NPPs and the Chornobyl NPP."

The IAEA noted that multiple power outages caused by hostilities have been documented in the area of the station in recent days.

IAEA reported a drone attack on the external radiation monitoring laboratory of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant on May 3.

On April 26, the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant entered a blackout state due to the shutdown of the Ferrosplavna-1 power line following Russian shelling. This marked the 15th total power failure since the station was occupied.