FOG BLOG UKRAINE LOG: ZAPORIZHZHIA NUCLEAR PLANT OFF LINE DUE TO POWER LINE FIRE FROM SHELLING!

Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant temporarily cut off from power grid Fire damage to transmission line raised fears of catastrophe The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the middle of the fighting in Ukraine was temporarily knocked offline Thursday because of fire damage to a transmission line, causing a blackout across the region and heightening fears of a catastrophe in a country still haunted by the Chernobyl disaster.

The complex, Europe's largest nuclear plant, has been occupied by Russian forces and run by Ukrainian workers since the early days of the six-month-old war. Ukraine alleges Russia is essentially holding the plant hostage, storing weapons there and launching attacks from around it, while Moscow accuses Ukraine of recklessly firing on the facility.

On Thursday, the plant was cut off from the electrical grid after fires damaged the last operating regular transmission line, according to Ukraine's nuclear power agency, Energoatom. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed Russian shelling and said the plant's emergency backup diesel generators had to be activated to supply power needed to run the plant. "Russia has put Ukraine and all Europeans one step away from a radiation disaster," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

Zaporizhzhia's Russian-installed regional governor, Yevgeny Balitsky, blamed the transmission-line damage on a Ukrainian attack.

It was not immediately clear whether the damaged line carried outgoing or incoming power, needed for the reactors' vital cooling systems. A backup line supplying electricity from another plant remained in place, Energoatom said.