[jmcenanly]

The employees might not get paid. The burning building is the administrative building. The idea might be to knock out the power distribution, rather than the reactors. They would want a blackout, not Chernobyl 2.0.

[agere_contra]

I guess the Russians want to be able to control power distribution. And to deny that same control power to the UDF.

This power outage tracking site isn't showing a blackout across Ukraine (at least as of 10 minutes ago). Disclaimer: I found this site at random - I have no idea of its provenance nor trustworthiness.

IIRC the Russians have stated that they want to avoid any possible UDF provocation at the site - preventing what we might call 'Chernobyl 2.0'.

The Russians took over the actual Chernobyl site a few days back, with the same expressed intention.

But the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is HUGE: the Russians must have an eye on the strategic possibilities of cutting power if they wanted to.