Drone attack rings alarm bells at Europe's largest nuclear plant
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine had been attacked by a drone, the agency said, citing local officials inside the facility.
The agency said in a statement posted on its platforms that the plant's operator, under Russian management, informed it that the drone hit the turbine building and caused a hole in its wall, without mentioning damage to the reactor's basic systems.
State nuclear power company Rosatom accused Ukraine of carrying out what it described as a "deliberate attack", noting that the way the drone was operated via a fiber-optic cable makes the possibility of accidental targeting unlikely.
Russian media quoted the company's CEO, Alexei Likhachev, as saying that what happened "brings us one step closer to an incident whose effects may extend beyond the borders of Russia and Ukraine," referring to the cross-border risks of any potential nuclear accident.
Kyiv denies targeting the station
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry dismissed the accusations as "illogical," stressing that Kyiv does not target nuclear facilities under any circumstances, and that Moscow uses these allegations to justify its continued military presence inside the plant.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director Rafael Grossi commented on the incident, warning of the danger of any military action near nuclear facilities, saying that "attacking nuclear plants is like playing with fire," and reiterated his call for the need to exercise maximum restraint and implement security arrangements to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.
The development comes amid rising tensions over Europe's largest nuclear plant, amid accusations between Moscow and Kyiv over drone attacks, and continued international fears that an uncalculated strike could lead to a radiation catastrophe beyond the borders of the battlefield.
Zaporizhzhia is Europe's largest nuclear facility
The Zaporizhzhia NPP is the largest nuclear power plant on the continent of Europe, and one of the ten largest in the world, located in the southern Ukrainian city of Enerhodar and has been under the control of Russian forces since March 2022.
The plant includes six nuclear reactors designed by the former Soviet Union, all of which operate on VVER1000 pressurized water reactor technology, and the plant has a net capacity of about 5.7 gigawatts of electricity, as each reactor produces approximately 950 megawatts, an amount that before the war covered nearly a fifth of Ukraine's electricity needs.
Moscow, through Rosatom, is working to create the conditions for the issuance of new operating licenses in preparation for connecting the plant to the Russian electrical grid, while exploring the possibility of gradually restarting Reactors 2 and 6, despite international warnings of the risks associated with operating a nuclear facility in an active conflict zone.
The IAEA maintains a permanent presence inside the plant to monitor radiation levels and assess the safety of systems, and frequently calls for what it calls a "silent truce," temporary field arrangements that allow technical teams to repair damaged high-voltage lines without coming under fire.