Russia is operating Shahed drone control points inside Europe's largest nuclear plant. Ukraine's Defense Intelligence says Russian forces have deployed control points for Gerbera-Seeker and Geran-Seeker kamikaze drones at the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), staffed with workers brought in from the Alabuga special economic zone, including underage students. 

All six ZNPP reactors are in cold shutdown. Russian occupying forces have parked military equipment directly in the turbine halls of reactor units 1, 2, 5, and 6, turned basements and bomb shelters into weapons depots, and installed machine-gun nests and missile systems on the roofs of the reactor buildings, per Ukrainian intelligence.

IAEA experts denied access to reactor halls

Ammunition and equipment are stored beneath the technical passages and overpasses that connect the reactor units to other buildings.

Some technical facilities near the shoreline of the former Kakhovka reservoir have been mined. A Rosgvardia contingent of 1,500 troops guards the plant.

IAEA experts do not have full access to the reactor units or the special technical facilities. Inspections are conducted along pre-agreed plans and routes, which Ukrainian intelligence says makes an objective assessment of the situation difficult or impossible. Russia has restricted IAEA access to reactor halls since at least 2024.

Plant has one power line left and 21 blackouts behind it

ZNPP had 10 external power lines before the occupation. One works now. The plant suffered another blackout on 3 July 2026 — the 21st since the full-scale war, per Ukrainian intelligence.

A nuclear plant in cold shutdown still needs electricity. Cooling systems for the reactors and the spent fuel storage run on it, and when off-site power fails, the plant falls back on diesel generators trucked in through a war zone. Europe's largest nuclear facility has been living on that margin since 2022.

The 17th blackout came in June 2026, the fifth of that year alone, and more than 500 missiles and drones were recorded inside the 30-km surveillance zones of Ukrainian nuclear plants during 2025

Cooling pond is two meters below its minimum

Russian occupiers are not maintaining the required water level in the cooling pond. As of July 2026, it stands at 12.86 meters, compared with a minimum of 15 meters.

Russia destroyed the Kakhovka Dam on 6 June 2023, which severed the plant's original water supply.

Rosatom is forcing staff onto its contracts

ZNPP employed roughly 11,000 people before the full-scale war. About 7,500 remain, including 500 workers from an outsourcing company that holds no license to work at the station.

All staff are being forced to sign contracts with Rosatom under threat of dismissal, according to the Ukrainian intelligence. Personnel brought in from Russia lack the qualifications to service the plant, because ZNPP differs substantially from Russian nuclear facilities.

Ukraine has proposed amending the IAEA statute to disqualify states that deliberately undermine nuclear safety from the agency's governing bodies. Russia sits on the IAEA Board of Governors.

Britain has pledged nearly $381.5 million to help Ukraine rebuild and keep its lights on. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper announced the recovery and energy-security package at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk, covering nuclear fuel for Ukraine's reactors, two new wind farms, support for business, and an overhaul of the justice system, the British government said.

The package is anchored by the $282 million deal for British firm Urenco to supply enriched uranium to state operator Energoatom, which the UK first announced on 16 June and has now folded into its Gdańsk pledge.

"The deal will also boost the British economy, as Urenco employs more than 650 people in the UK and its Chester site supports more than 4,500 jobs around the UK in the wider supply chain," the UK government said. 

Britain funds war-crimes cases

Part of the package goes to modernizing Ukraine's justice system. The funding will help build systems to hold perpetrators of war crimes accountable, speed up court processes, and fight corruption, the government said.

Cooper framed Ukraine's security as inseparable from Britain's own, called a just and lasting peace "urgent and non-negotiable," and said backing Kyiv now creates a strong partner for London later.

Investment arm backs wind power

British International Investment, the UK's development-finance institution, will invest about $85 million into Ukraine's renewable energy and banking sectors alongside the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The money will help build two new wind farms and support Ukrainian businesses through Bank Lviv.

“An enduring peace in Ukraine will not be secured through military support alone, but through our collective commitment to rebuilding communities, strengthening institutions, and deepening joint action," Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said. 

Nuclear fuel replaces Russian supply

The fuel deal continues Ukraine's break from Russian nuclear supply. After 2022, Kyiv switched its reactors from Russian fuel to Western assemblies and now relies on nuclear power to replace the thermal capacity destroyed by Russian strikes.

Urenco's enriched uranium, financed through UK Export Finance over two years, adds another non-Russian link in that chain as Moscow keeps targeting the grid before winter.

Russian nuclear giant Rosatom is negotiating the sale of a 49% stake in Turkey's Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant project, estimated at $25 billion, Bloomberg reported on July 1.

The project is a cornerstone of Russian-Turkish energy cooperation. The Akkuyu plant, located in Mersin Province, is poised to become Turkey's first nuclear power facility.

The 4.8-gigawatt project is expected to begin supplying electricity in 2026, Anton Dedusenko, chairman of the board at Rosatom's Turkish subsidiary, told Bloomberg.

"The closer we are to the first unit generating electricity, the more investors start coming," Dedusenko said on the sidelines of the Nuclear Power Plants Expo & Summit in Istanbul.

A previous sale attempt in 2018 collapsed over commercial disagreements. This time, financing is complicated by the threat of U.S. sanctions, prompting Moscow and Ankara to consider alternative payment mechanisms.

"There are many ways how to deliver money here. We can deliver the Russian rubles, the Turkish lira," Dedusenko said.

Despite its NATO membership, Turkey has maintained open diplomatic and economic ties with Russia throughout the full-scale war against Ukraine, while continuing to supply aid to Kyiv and host international mediation efforts.

‘Ukraine is biggest landmine challenge since World War II,’ says head of world’s largest demining organization

Russia’s full-scale invasion may have turned Ukraine into the world’s largest minefield. As of March 2025, Ukraine’s mine-affected land spans an estimated 139,000 square kilometers — or 23% of its territory — covering more ground than all of Greece and posing an immense threat to civilian life and recovery efforts.

The Kyiv IndependentDaria Shulzhenko