By Olha Chepil | 2025-06-06

KYIV -- Europe's largest nuclear power plant is quietly being rewired and, with it, the balance of global security.

Deep in Ukrainian territory under its occupation, Russia has begun laying new power lines to permanently tether the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) to its own power grid, according to a recent investigation by The New York Times.

Behind the steel and concrete lies a tangle of risks: environmental catastrophe, energy extortion and a new phase of nuclear brinkmanship. As the war drags on and the Kremlin tightens its grip on Ukrainian land, the Zaporizhzhia NPP is shifting from a strategic asset to a tool of Moscow's geopolitical strategy.

Power grids and reality at the front

The Zaporizhzhia NPP has become an epicenter of combat. Of the four 750kV high-voltage lines that once connected the plant to Ukraine's power grid, two remain under Ukrainian control, while the other two have been damaged.

"Since July 2022, the occupation administration at Zaporizhzhia had a step-by-step plan to reconnect the plant," Olga Kosharna, co-founder of Anti-Crisis Expert Nuclear Center of Ukraine, an NGO, told Kontur.

A Greenpeace report provided to The New York Times includes satellite images showing that since early February, Russia has been building more than 50 miles (80.5km) of power lines and pylons between the Russian-occupied Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Berdyansk along the Azov coast.

The Times verified the satellite images, according to a May article.

Kosharna confirmed construction is under way on a transmission line linking Mariupol to Berdyansk, home to the South Donbas substation, a key electrical hub that could eventually connect to the Zaporizhzhia NPP.

The plant, situated just a few kilometers from the front line, is frequently targeted by shelling and drones. Russian forces have stationed troops and vehicles on the site, and analysts report that the Russians have planted land mines there.

"The plant hosts military personnel and vehicles. It is mined inside and around the perimeter. Anything could go wrong," Hryhoriy Plachkov, former director of the Ukrainian State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate, told Kontur.

No mistakes allowed

Restarting the plant faces both technical hurdles and staffing shortages.

Many workers were evacuated after the occupation, and some refused to cooperate. Only 22 of the plant's 200 licensed specialists remained to work under Russia's state nuclear agency, Rosatom, according to Kosharna.

"They are now training turbine engineers to become reactor operators," she said of Rosatom.

The workers "take exams with Rosatomnadzor [the Russian nuclear oversight body] in just three months, but it's impossible [to be qualified so soon]. It takes 10 years to train someone, you know? Ten years."

This use of unqualified workers radically increases the risk of human error, especially when the power supply is unstable and personnel are under psychological pressure, say specialists.

"The training facility and equipment that allow personnel to be prepared to work there have been destroyed. Nobody knows the psychological state of the staff," said Plachkov.

A major challenge is the lack of a stable cooling water supply. After the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in 2023, which Ukraine blamed on Russia, water levels dropped to critical lows.

The Zaporizhzhia NPP relies on a pond and pumping stations for cooling, but levels keep plummeting. Ensuring a steady supply is difficult, and the pumping equipment risks further damage from fighting and poor maintenance, said Kosharna.

"How to ensure cooling? Well, there are a million technical questions. If it isn't done, you eventually face the so-called most apocalyptic scenario," said Plachkov.

A gross violation

Connecting the Zaporizhzhia NPP to Russia's grid is not only about electricity but also a de facto usurpation of Ukraine's critical infrastructure, a violation of the United Nations Charter, the Geneva Conventions and nuclear safety norms, say analysts.

Russia's strategy is to present the plant as already under its control and vital to regions like Crimea, Petro Oleshchuk, a political scientist at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, told Kontur. Restarting the plant, he added, is aimed less at electricity production and more at geopolitical extortion.

Ukraine continues to seek international pressure on Russia. On May 28, the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna sent an official protest to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in connection with Russia's actions.

"Any commissioning of the Zaporizhzhia NPP without the express permission of the Ukrainian nuclear regulator is illegal and creates an immediate and unacceptable threat to nuclear safety," Yuriy Vitrenko, Ukrainian ambassador to the International Organizations in Vienna, told Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform May 28.

The IAEA's view

However, the IAEA says that Russia is not preparing to restart the Zaporizhzhia NPP. The agency sees no signs of such preparations, Reuters reported May 29, citing sources in the IAEA.

"Our teams continue to confirm there is no indication at the moment that there will be any active preparations for a restart of the plant now," said an IAEA representative speaking on condition of anonymity.

Russia is using the nuclear plant to strengthen its control over occupied territory and to threaten the international community, rather than to restore the electrical system, say analysts.

"This is not about electricity. It's a tool of propaganda and coercion," said Oleshchuk.

"Russia wants to sell the world the illusion of 'normal life' in occupied territory and to promote the resettlement and replacement of the local population."