The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced on social media that the operator of the Russian-controlled power plant informed it about a drone strike on the turbine building, “which reportedly punched a hole in its wall.”
Russian media released a statement from the state nuclear energy corporation “Rosatom,” accusing Ukraine of a deliberate attack – a claim Kyiv strongly denies.
Zaporizhzhia NPP, located near the front line in southern Ukraine, is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.
Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of risking a nuclear disaster with attacks ever since Russian forces took over the plant in 2022.
“There must be no attacks from or against the power plant,” IAEA head Rafael Grossi was quoted as saying in a late Saturday evening post on the social network “X.” “Attacking nuclear facilities is like playing with fire.”
“Rosatom” stated that the drone was controlled by a fiber optic cable, which allegedly rules out the possibility of a “random strike.”
“Today we took another step closer to an incident that is very likely to affect even those living far beyond the borders of Russia and Ukraine,” Rosatom CEO Aleksey Likhachyov told Russian media.
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Dismissing these accusations, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that they lack “logic.”
“It is unclear why Ukraine would strike its own nuclear power plant located on its own territory, which it is trying to regain sovereign control over,” the ministry said.
“We regard these statements as another information operation by the occupying country,” it added.
The Ukrainian forces group “Pivden” wrote on the social network “Facebook” that Ukrainians “did not strike the 6th unit of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” and its “soldiers act strictly in accordance with international humanitarian law and fully understand the consequences of any actions involving nuclear facilities.”
The strike punched a hole in the wall of the machine hall but did not damage critical equipment, Rosatom said.
Officials in the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region accused Ukraine in April of carrying out a strike that, they claimed, killed a transport worker.
