The head of the UN’s atomic watchdog agency has condemned a drone strike on one of six nuclear reactors at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) in Ukraine, saying such attacks “significantly increase the risk of a major nuclear accident”.
In a statement on X, Rafael Grossi confirmed at least three direct hits against the ZNPP main reactor containment structures. “This cannot happen,” the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
Grossi said it was the first such attack since November 2022, when he set out five basic principles to avoid a serious nuclear accident with radiological consequences.
Russian officials at the plant claimed the site was attacked on Sunday by Ukrainian military drones, including a strike on the dome of the plant’s sixth power unit.
Ukraine’s intelligence agency has denied responsibility for the strike. “Russian strikes, including imitation ones, on the territory of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant ... have long been a well known criminal practice of the invaders,” a spokesperson told local media.
The Guardian has been unable to verify the claims.
According to the plant authorities, there was no critical damage or casualties and radiation levels at the plant were normal after the strikes. Later on Sunday, however, Russian state-owned nuclear agency Rosatom said three people were wounded in the “unprecedented series of drone attacks”, specifically when a drone hit an area close to the site’s canteen.
The IAEA said on Sunday that its experts had been informed of the drone strike and that “such detonation is consistent with IAEA observations”.
In a separate statement, the nuclear watchdog confirmed the physical impact of drone attacks at the plant, including at one of its six reactors. One casualty was reported, it said. “Damage at unit 6 has not compromised nuclear safety, but this is a serious incident with potential to undermine integrity of the reactor’s containment system” it added.
The power plant has been caught in the crossfire since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in 2022 and seized the facility shortly afterwards. The IAEA has repeatedly expressed alarm about the nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, amid fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe. Both Ukraine and Russia have regularly accused the other of attacking the plant, which is still close to the front lines.
The plant’s six reactors have been shut down for months, but it still needs power and qualified staff to operate crucial cooling systems and other safety features.
Also on Sunday, three people were killed when their house was hit by a Russian projectile in the frontline town of Huliaipole in Ukraine’s partly occupied south-eastern Zaporizhzhia region, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said. Later on Sunday, two people were wounded in another shelling of Huliaipole.
Separately, three people were wounded in Russian shelling in Ukraine’s north-east Kharkiv region, according to regional governor Oleh Syniehubov.
In Russia, a girl died and four other people were wounded when the debris of a downed Ukrainian drone fell on a car carrying a family of six people in Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.