Moscow, April 06 (QNA) - Director of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant Yuri Chernichuk confirmed that work is currently underway with the International Atomic Energy Agency to implement a “silence regime,” an informal or temporary agreement to suspend military activities, shelling, and combat operations around the nuclear facility in order to repair one of the plant’s high-voltage power transmission lines.

According to the Russian news agency Sputnik, Chernichuk stated that one of the plant’s two high-voltage power lines Dniprovska was damaged as a result of attacks carried out by Ukrainian forces, warning that the situation at the plant remains continuously tense due to the impact of ongoing military operations on the facility and the surrounding city.

Chernichuk said that this description, although unusual, reflects an ongoing reality of tension linked to the intensity of the military operations affecting the plant’s facilities located in the industrial zone, as well as the city and civilian infrastructure that are being shelled.

Russian forces have controlled the Ukrainian nuclear plant - the largest in Europe since early March 2022.

For his part, Director General of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom Alexey Likhachev said last night that no direct strikes had been recorded in the area of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in recent days, excluding the city of Enerhodar, which is affiliated with the plant and has been subjected to attacks. He also noted that power to the plant was cut via the Dniprovska line at a sensitive point over water.

The Director of Communications of the power plant Yevgenia Yashina had previously announced that the pace of attacks around the Zaporizhzhia plant and the city of Enerhodar had increased noticeably over the past two weeks. (QNA)