Ukraine said on January 21 that it had restored power supply to the Chornobyl nuclear power plant after the International Atomic Energy Agency reported a total loss of off-site power following widespread military activity in the region.
The outage underscored the fragility of Ukraine's electrical grid after months of Russian attacks on energy infrastructure. The following day, the IAEA said Zaporizhzhya, Europe's largest nuclear plant, had been reconnected to its sole backup power line for the first time since January 2 after repairs.
A Grid Under Siege
Ukraine's energy operator has been rotating emergency outages across the country as generation capacity shrinks faster than repairs can restore it, and the government has urged households and industry to cut consumption through the winter.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has repeatedly warned that nuclear safety cannot be taken for granted in a war zone. Each power loss at a Ukrainian plant revives the same question that has hung over the conflict since 2022: how long can safety systems run on backup before something gives.
