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Shelling at Zaporizhzhia as Ukraine lost power
Summary
A look back at 20 November 2022, when shelling hit a Russian-controlled nuclear plant while millions of Ukrainians were without electricity.
What did the shelling of Europe's atomic infrastructure mean for a country already in the dark? On 20 November 2022, the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Enerhodar was shelled. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported damage to some buildings, systems and equipment at the site.
The attack came two days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, on 18 November 2022, that Russian missile strikes had left at least 10 million Ukrainians without electricity. The death toll from the strikes of the previous day had risen to seven, with many more people injured.
Taken together, the two reports show pressure on Ukraine's energy system from two directions: missile strikes that cut supply to millions of homes, and shelling at a nuclear plant that the IAEA said damaged equipment and systems. The IAEA's account placed the damage at the plant itself, which remained under Russian control.
For international readers, 20 November 2022 therefore marked a point where the civilian cost of the strikes on power supply and the safety of a nuclear site were both in the news at once.
