While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Aug 26 [Video]

World narrowly avoids ‘radiation disaster’ at nuclear plant

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the world narrowly avoided a radiation disaster on Thursday as the last regular line supplying electricity to Ukraine’s Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was restored hours after being cut.

Zelensky blamed shelling by Russia’s military for fires in the ash pits of a nearby coal power station that disconnected the reactor complex, Europe’s largest such facility, from the power grid.

He said back-up diesel generators had started to ensure power supply and keep the plant safe.

“If our station staff had not reacted after the blackout, then we would have already been forced to overcome the consequences of a radiation accident,” he said in an evening address. “Russia has put Ukraine and all Europeans in a situation one step away from a radiation disaster.”