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Reuters
MOSCOW — The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that Ukraine shelled Europe's largest Zaporizhia nuclear power plant on August 7, damaging high-voltage power lines and reducing the plant's output.
At the daily military briefing, the Ministry of Defense said Ukraine shelled the power plant around 12:40 pm. (0940 GMT) From a location near the town of Marhanets.
The shelling damaged high-voltage power lines that supply electricity to areas under Russian control in parts of southern Ukraine's Zaporizhia and Kherson provinces, the ministry said.
The shelling also caused a power surge that triggered a safety system to cut off the power supply, Moscow said.
Kyiv denies attacking the factory. Ukraine's state-owned nuclear power company Energoatom said on Sunday that a worker was injured when Russian forces shelled the power plant on Saturday night.
Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield report.
Russia also said he had reduced the power of two reactors to "prevent confusion" and that firefighters had extinguished the source of the smoke.
Russian-installed officials in the Zaporizhia region said earlier Monday that the facility was functioning normally. (Reporting by Reuters, Editing by Kevin Liffey)
