A reactor at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine has been reconnected to the grid, state nuclear company Energoatom said.

Europe's largest nuclear power plant was disconnected from the Ukrainian grid for the first time in its history on Thursday, officials said,

skynews

reports .

In a statement released on Telegram, Energoatom said that "Today, August 26, at 2:04 p.m., one of the ZNPP power units that was stopped yesterday was connected to the power grid and the capacity is being increased."

He added that "The nuclear workers of the Zaporizhzhya NPP are real heroes!

They tirelessly and steadfastly carry the nuclear and radiation security of Ukraine and all of Europe on their shoulders and work selflessly so that their country has life-giving electricity.

We are proud and thank you very much!"

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said backup diesel generators were "immediately activated" at the plant on Thursday to avoid a "radiation catastrophe".

"The world needs to understand what a threat this is: if the diesel generators hadn't been fired up, if our automation and plant staff hadn't reacted after the power outage, then we would have been forced to overcome the consequences of a radiation accident," Zelensky said during his nightly speech.

/Telegraph/