Shutting down for safety reasons: Ukraine Zaporizhzhia, Europe's largest nuclear power plant

Operations at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine have been fully stopped as a safety measure, Energoatom, the state agency in charge of the plant, said on Sunday.

The plant “is completely stopped” after the agency disconnected the number six power unit from the grid at 3.41am local time, it said in a statement. “Preparations are under way for its cooling and transfer to a cold state.”

Kyiv on Wednesday called for residents of Russian-occupied areas around the plant, Europe's largest, to evacuate for their own safety.

Both Russia and Ukraine accuse the other of launching missiles at the nuclear facility, endangering the facility.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, has called for the demilitarisation of the area.

In order to allow the plant to be powered by Ukraine's energy system, Energoatom claimed that on Saturday it repaired a communications line to the power system that it claimed had been harmed by Russian bombardment.

Accordingly, it was decided to turn off power unit 6 and put it in the safest mode, cold shutdown. According to the report, the likelihood of further damage to the line "remains high," necessitating the use of diesel generators, whose runtime is constrained by available technology and diesel fuel supplies.

In the meantime, Moscow withdrew from its main stronghold in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday, causing one of the key front lines of the conflict to abruptly crumble as Ukrainian forces advanced quickly.

Since its soldiers were driven from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in March, Moscow's rapid defeat at Izium in Kharkiv province was its biggest setback. In the six-month-old conflict, Ukraine hailed it as a turning point as thousands of Russian forces retreated, leaving behind ammo caches and other supplies.

A months-long assault from the north on the neighbouring Donbas region, which is made up of Donetsk and Luhansk, was one of the primary campaigns Russian forces utilised Izium as the logistical base for.

Russia's defence ministry told troops to leave the area and strengthen operations elsewhere in Donetsk, according to the state-run TASS news agency.

According to TASS, the director of Russia's administration in Kharkiv advised locals to leave the region and fly to Russia in order to "save lives." Witnesses claimed long lines of moving cars fleeing territory controlled by Russia.

If the advances that have been claimed hold true, it would be a major setback for Russia, which Western intelligence services claim has sustained significant losses. It would also be a huge boost for Ukraine, which is eager to demonstrate to the Western countries that continue to provide it with weaponry that it is deserving of their continued backing.