Ukraine disrupted attempt to connect ZNPP to Russian grid, Greenpeace says
Occupied Zaporizhzhya NPP (Photo: REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko)
Ukrainian drone strikes disrupted Russian plans to connect
the occupied Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP)
to Russia’s power grid, Greenpeace Ukraine said in a report
published on July 21.
The analysis is based on high-resolution satellite images taken between January and July 2026. Greenpeace said Russian forces had nearly completed a high-voltage transmission line between the occupied cities of Melitopol and Henichesk along the M18 road. After a series of Ukrainian drone attacks, including a strike on a Henichesk substation in early July 2026, the process was interrupted.
The group said the new line was a key part of a Kremlin plan to integrate the temporarily occupied plant into Russia’s energy system. Greenpeace said Moscow intended to use the plant’s electricity to supply occupied areas of Ukraine, including Crimea, as well as southern regions of Russia, and to support military logistics, mining, and agriculture under occupation.
“In all its other objectives it has failed and will most likely continue to fail, including to reconnect to the temporarily occupied grid and restart reactors,” the report quoted Jan Vande Putte, nuclear energy specialist at Greenpeace Ukraine.
“This new electricity line from Melitopol will not reverse the direction of travel that increasingly makes Russia’s occupation of the ZNPP a doomed project. However, the continuing nuclear safety risks posed by Russia at ZNPP mean that the priority of the international community, including the IAEA, must be to accelerate the end to Russia’s occupation of ZNPP through all means, including punitive sanctions.”
Shaun Burnie, Greenpeace’s lead nuclear specialist in
Ukraine, criticized International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael
Grossi, saying Grossi “continues to undermine international efforts to end
Russia’s illegal occupation of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant.” Burnie
added that Grossi is positioning himself as a candidate for UN
secretary-general and should be urging Russia and Rosatom to halt plans to
restart ZNPP reactors and integrate the plant into Russia’s energy system.
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