The security situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) has “deteriorated” following a nearby drone attack, the United Nations energy watchdog said on Saturday.
The Russian military has occupied the plant since early March 2022, several weeks after Moscow’s first invasion of Ukraine.
“We are once again witnessing an escalation of the nuclear safety and security threats facing the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. I remain extremely concerned and reiterate my call for maximum restraint from all sides and strict adherence to the five concrete principles established to protect the plant,” Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a statement.
The power plant reported to the IAEA on Saturday that an explosive device carried by a drone was detonated just outside the plant’s protected area, close to the plant’s “essential cooling water spray ponds” and about 100 meters from the Dniprovska power line, the plant’s only remaining power supply, the IAEA said.
According to the IAEA, there were no casualties and no damage to the plant’s equipment. However, the road between the two main entrances was hit.
Russian state media TASS reported that power plant personnel claimed that Ukraine had carried out the drone attack.
“At 7:00 Moscow time (4:00 GMT), the Ukrainian drone dropped a grenade on the road that runs past the power plants outside the perimeter. Personnel use this road all the time. No one was injured, but again there was a direct threat to the safety of personnel and the plant,” the report said.
Ukraine has not made any public comments on the drone attack.
Since Russia took over the nuclear power plant more than two years ago, Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly warned that Russia could hamper its citizens’ access to energy by shutting down the plant, or worse, trigger a nuclear meltdown.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this month that the Russian military had set fire to the site and said the situation at the plant “is not normal and cannot be normal” as long as it remains under Russian control.
“Nuclear power plants are designed to withstand technical or human failures and external events, including extreme ones, but they are not built to withstand a direct military attack, nor are they intended to, just like any other power plant in the world,” Grossi said Sunday.
Fighting around the plant in 2022 sparked international concern and eventually led to IAEA inspectors being permanently stationed at the plant that fall. Fears were reignited in June 2023 after Ukraine said Russian troops had withdraw from the site and accused Moscow of preparing to blow up the nuclear power plant from within.
A Ukrainian counteroffensive in the region in 2023 failed to make much progress toward liberating the plant, and front lines in the area have been largely silent since then.
The incident comes as Ukraine continues its military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. Zelensky said Sunday the incursion aims to create a buffer zone to prevent future attacks from Moscow across the border, The Associated Press reported.
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