On March 4, 2022, the occupiers seized Energodar and the ZNPP near the city. It is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and the third largest in the world. It operates in Ukraine's united energy system with three of its six units.
On 20 July, it was reported that the occupiers were demanding that the ZNPP administration open the engine rooms of the power units to them so that they could deploy military equipment there. Enerhoatom later said that the occupiers had brought heavy equipment into the engine room of the Zaporizhzhya NPP power unit, threatening to create a severe nuclear accident at the Zaporizhzhya NPP. The Russian occupiers plan to disconnect the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, from the Ukrainian energy system and switch it to Russia-occupied Crimea. As a result, the entire south of Ukraine will be left without energy. "Rosatom has already launched a special reconnection programme.