Russians are laying a power line to illegally restart the Zaporizhzhia NPP
Relevant work continues in the occupied Ukrainian territories - Greenpeace Ukraine report
Satellite analysis by an international environmental organization has revealed the construction of a new high-voltage power transmission line for the Zaporizhzhia NPP in the temporarily occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions, according to a report by Greenpeace Ukraine.
It is noted that the visual identification of these objects confirms Rosatom's intentions to restart nuclear reactors at the ZNPP.
"As of May 23, 2025, 90 km of line with installed poles have been built. New images from Greenpeace show that from May 11 to 22, 2025, 15 poles and more than 5 km of power transmission line were erected from the eastern part of Topolne, north of Mariupol. It is likely that construction will continue through the Kalchytske reservoir until the end of May," the organization suggests.
Greenpeace has documented the installation of 90 km of pylons using high- and medium-resolution imagery from Planet. "The images show no signs of construction until February 2025. Given the current location of the construction, Greenpeace predicts that the line will be extended another 100 km west to occupied Melitopol (Zaporizhzhya region), where it is to be connected to a substation," the organization adds.
It is assumed that in the eastern direction the line should be connected to a 750/330 kV substation north of occupied Mariupol (Donetsk region). For the 90 km long line, approximately 300 high-voltage poles were probably installed.
Greenpeace states that the construction is coordinated by the Black Sea Regional Dispatching Department of the occupation branch of JSC SO EES - this is a structure that carries out centralized operational dispatching management in the United Energy System of Russia.
The Zaporizhzhia NPP was attacked and illegally occupied by Russian forces on March 4, 2022. The plant's reactors have not been generating electricity since September 2022. In December 2024, Sergei Kiriyenko, First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, announced his intention to restart the reactors "as soon as possible." Russia's goal is to connect the Zaporizhzhia NPP reactors to the Russian power grid in the Rostov region. The restart is a priority for the Russian government and is led by Rosatom.
Greenpeace Ukraine warns of the danger of Russia's restart of the Zapadnaya NPP from January 2024 and calls for stopping the illegal restart.
As reported by "Ukrainian Energy", over two months, more than 1,200 disruptions in the energy sector have been recorded due to Russian attacks. 70 incidents of disruptions in the functioning of energy networks were detected in the oil and gas sector, 11 in the coal sector.
