Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant faces a “critical” situation after being without external power for seven days, with one emergency diesel generator now failing.

Russian shelling cut the plant off from the electricity grid, leaving its cooling and safety systems reliant on backup power.

The outage, the longest since Russia’s 2022 invasion, marks the tenth disconnection of Europe’s largest nuclear facility during the war.

Both Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for the blackout, Al-Jazeera has reported.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi stressed that while the plant is currently stable, the situation is unsustainable, urging both sides to restore offsite power to prevent a potential nuclear disaster.