On May 28, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi announced that communication with the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) was lost for nearly 12 hours on May 27, an incident he labeled “of concern.”
Grossi stated that IAEA teams had been unable to contact staff at the site for many hours. He noted the cause of the communication breakdown remained unclear but coincided with reports of attacks on Energodar—the city where most NPP personnel reside.
“The plant experienced no fixed telephone service or Internet connection, representing the longest such disruption since hostilities began,” Grossi stated in a press service release. “This incident raised immediate nuclear safety concerns.”
Grossi added that the IAEA is continuing its investigation into the malfunction and will discuss preventive measures for future incidents. A new rotation of IAEA experts was also planned as part of ongoing efforts.
On May 27, Alexei Likhachev, head of Russia’s state-owned Rosatom corporation, reported an unprecedented surge in attacks by Ukraine’s Armed Forces on nuclear infrastructure over the past month. According to Likhachev, one person died and several others were injured during recent strikes. He stated that Ukrainian forces were attempting to intimidate residents and staff through what he described as a “hunt” for transport.
The same day, Evgenia Yashina, Director of Communications at ZAES, reported that Energodar had been subjected to an unprecedented drone attack overnight. More than 50 explosions occurred, causing communication outages in parts of the city and power disruptions in certain areas.
