UN watchdog says Russia and Ukraine have established special ceasefire zones to allow the repairs to be safely carried out. What we know on day 1,334

Work has started to repair damaged power lines leading to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after a lengthy outage , the UN’s nuclear watchdog said on Saturday. The site, occupied by Russian forces since March 2022, lost its connection to the grid on 23 September for the 10th time – the longest outage of external power supply to the facility since Russia invaded Ukraine.

The repairs to the off-site power lines began after Russian and Ukrainian forces established “local ceasefire zones to allow work to proceed”, Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a post on X. “Both sides engaged constructively with the IAEA to enable the complex repair plan to proceed,” Grossi said. “Restoration of off-site power is crucial for nuclear safety and security.” The agency said it expected the work to take about a week. Russia and Ukraine confirmed the repair works had begun.

Since the outage, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe has been powered by back-up diesel generators . The nuclear plant’s six reactors, which produced about one-fifth of Ukraine’s electricity before the war, were shut down after Moscow took control. But the plant needs electricity to maintain its cooling and safety systems to prevent a disaster.

Elsewhere, Russia continued its aerial bombardment of Ukraine, launching three missiles and 164 drones overnight , Ukraine’s air force said on Saturday. It said Ukrainian forces shot down 136 of the drones. Two people were injured after Russian drones targeted a petrol station in the Zarichny district of Sumy in northeast Ukraine, local officials said Saturday. Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday that its air defences had shot down 41 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Ukrainians have shared their disappointment that the US may not provide Kyiv with long-range Tomahawk missiles . Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, met Donald Trump at the White House on Friday after the US president signalled that Washington could provide Ukraine with the long-range missiles that Kyiv believes will help bring Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.

Yet Zelenskyy ultimately left empty-handed, an outcome that dismayed, but did not surprise, many in the streets of the Ukrainian capital , who maintained their determination to end Russia’s invasion of their country. One Ukrainian military serviceman, Roman Vynnychenko, told the Associated Press he believed the prospect of Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine was a political “game”. “Ukraine won’t get those missiles,” he said. Vynnychenko said Ukraine still needed to procure new weapons with or without American help, particularly as Russian drones and missiles continued to hit civilian infrastructure. “Every day civilians and soldiers die, buildings collapse, our streets and cities are being destroyed,” Vynnychenko said. Victoria Khramtsova, a psychologist, said “we just want peace” after being at war for more than three years. “To tell you the truth, I look at the news, but nowadays I read only the headlines. And even those make me sad.”

The exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has warned Trump that Vladimir Putin is not serious about negotiations over Ukraine . Tsikhanouskaya poured cold water on planned talks between the US and Russian presidents, telling AFP in an interview released on Saturday: “As neighbours of Russia, we understand that dictators don’t need peace … So I don’t think that Putin is negotiable at all.” She also urged Trump to step up efforts to support democracy in her country , saying that without a free Belarus, there could be no peace in the region. “Our task is to explain [to Trump] that it’s not only about [political] hostages. It’s about the whole future of our country. And a democratic Belarus is in the interest of the US as well,” she added.