Ukraine: Dead in drone attack on Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an employee was killed in a drone attack on the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine. In addition, another employee was killed on Monday in another drone attack at a thermal power plant near the nuclear power plant, as the IAEA announced in the online service X.

The organization did not provide any information about who carried out the attacks. The head of the Russian nuclear company Rosatom blamed Ukraine. Kyiv did not initially comment.

IAEA Director Rafael Grossi strongly condemned the attacks. This would “violate indispensable pillars of nuclear safety,” he explained. Employees at nuclear facilities must be able to “perform their work without undue stress and without fear,” emphasized the IAEA. At the end of October, the organization had already reported that a drone attack had killed one person at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Zaporizhia is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. The facility was taken by Moscow troops at the beginning of March 2022, shortly after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The six reactors there have been shut down since September 2022. Since then, IAEA experts have also been staying at the nuclear facility.

Moscow and Kyiv repeatedly blame each other for attacks on the nuclear power plant. At the site of the nuclear facility on the Dnipro River, the front line runs between Ukrainian and Russian troops.