Control of Zaporizhzhia Plant a Key Sticking Point in Ukraine Peace Talks

President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine and the United States are about 90 percent of the way to a peace deal with Russia, but the remaining disagreement centers on who will control the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The plant, on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, has been under Russian military occupation since the early days of the war.

All six reactors are shut down, and nuclear experts say restarting electricity generation while fighting continues is too dangerous. The facility’s six-gigawatt capacity made it Europe’s largest nuclear plant and before the war supplied roughly a quarter of Ukraine’s electricity, a resource Kyiv says will be vital for postwar reconstruction and energy independence.

The plant sits on the front line, raising fears of a nuclear disaster. Nearby fighting has repeatedly cut the high-voltage lines that power cooling systems, forcing reliance on backup diesel generators. A 2023 explosion at a dam drained the plant’s primary cooling source and left staff using a smaller pond and wells.

Limited local cease-fires have been arranged to repair power lines. Moscow has said it will not cede control. Russia has formally annexed the Zaporizhzhia region and has outlined plans to restart reactors and link the plant to its grid; a Greenpeace report said Russia was building power lines in occupied southern Ukraine to that end.

Key Topics

World, United States, Ukraine, Nuclear Plant, Russia, Peace Talks, Energy