THE HEAD of Ukraine’s atomic energy operator accused Russia yesterday of trying to “steal” Europe’s largest nuclear plant by cutting it off from the Ukrainian electricity grid.

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) has been without an outside source of electricity since Monday and receives power for its own safety systems from the only one of its six reactors that remains operational, Enerhoatom chief Petro Kotin said.

“We are trying to keep this unit running as much as possible, but eventually it will have to be shut down and then the station will switch to diesel generators,” he said, saying that such generators are “the station’s last defence before a radiation accident.”

Ukraine and Russia have traded blame for shelling that has damaged parts of the plant as well as the transmission lines that connect it to Ukraine’s electricity network and provide power for the crucial cooling systems that are needed to prevent a meltdown.

The head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, warned the UN Security Council this week that “something very, very catastrophic could take place” at the plant and urged Russia and Ukraine to establish a “nuclear safety and security protection zone” around it.

Mr Kotin said that the Russians “have a crazy idea to switch the ZNPP to the Russian power system; in fact they are trying to steal the plant and steal all the electricity it produces.”

He said that the Russians gave the plant management a 10-page plan about three or four weeks ago to connect the plant to the electricity grid in Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine following 2014’s “Maidan” coup in Kiev.

On the same day, the Russians started shelling the power lines that connect the plant to the Ukrainian grid, and on Monday, the last line was cut, Mr Kotin said.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unscheduled visit to Kiev yesterday as President Joe Biden’s administration announced major new military aid worth more than $2 billion (£1.7bn) for Ukraine and other European countries.

If approved by the US Congress, yesterday’s move would take the US’s total spend on aid to Ukraine to $15.2bn (£13.2bn) since Mr Biden took office.