IAEA brokers eighth local ceasefire at Zaporizhzhia plant to repair backup transformer, as Grossi warns diesel is running low

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has brokered a new local ceasefire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the eighth of its kind, to let engineers repair a damaged backup transformer, according to a UN News report published on 16 October. The truce started on Thursday, 15 October.

The transformer supports the plant’s connection to its only remaining external power line, the UN report said. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, who announced the arrangement, did not say in the material cited by UN News how long the pause is meant to last.

Diesel running low

Grossi also warned that diesel fuel at the site is running low, with no deliveries since March. “It is essential that steps are taken to increase the volume of diesel fuel available on-site prior to winter,” he was quoted as saying. Diesel is what powers the plant’s emergency generators if the external line is lost.

The plant is on the Russian-held bank of the Dnipro. Geopolitiki earlier reported Russia says attack on fuel trucks endangered Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, a claim by the Russian side. The UN report on the new ceasefire does not attribute the transformer damage to either party.

Winter pressure on Ukraine’s energy system

The announcement came in the same UN News report that covered the findings of the UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine. The mission said that on 13 and 14 October strikes hit several energy facilities, including Kyiv’s three main power stations, and that about 600,000 people in the capital were temporarily left without electricity, according to Ukrainian authorities. It added that Ukrainian forces also targeted electricity and heating infrastructure in occupied territory and in Russia. The mission’s head, Danielle Bell, warned that systematically attacking such infrastructure “as winter approaches is bound to inflict significant suffering”.

Arthur Erken, the International Organization for Migration’s regional director for Europe and Central Asia, said about 1.45 million returnees live in frontline districts and that only 32% of households could heat their homes adequately last cold season. About 2.1 million older people live alone in apartment buildings, he said, and less than 7% of IOM’s 2026 crisis response plan for Ukraine has been funded. The September civilian casualty figures from the same mission are in UN monitors record 328 civilians killed in Ukraine in September, the highest for that month since the invasion.

The IAEA statement itself could not be opened at the time of writing, so the details above rest on the UN’s account of Grossi’s remarks.