Russia has said a Ukrainian drone struck part of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
Russia has blamed Ukraine after a drone struck part of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Alexei Likhachev, chief of Russia’s state atomic energy corporation Rosatom, said that a Ukrainian drone hit the turbine hall of Unit 6 at the Russian-controlled plant on Saturday afternoon. He said it was fibre-optically guided, ruling out an accidental strike, according to state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.
The explosion caused a hole in the turbine hall wall, but no damage was caused to the main equipment, the news agency reports.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – the largest in Europe with six reactors and one of the world’s 10 biggest – has been a focus of concern for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) during the war amid fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe.
The plant has been held by Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, though it is not producing power.
It comes after Greenpeace said in a report on Tuesday that satellite photos showed Russia had been building “an electricity high voltage power line” in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
“This is some of the first hard evidence of Russian moving ahead with its dangerous and illegal plans for restarting Ukraine and Europe’s largest nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia,” said Shaun Burnie, a nuclear specialist at Greenpeace Ukraine.
However, after being asked about the Greenpeace report, an IAEA official said that the agency’s inspectors hadn’t seen any major changes at the Zaporizhzhia plant suggesting Russia was preparing to restart it.
“What I can say is our teams continue to confirm there is no indication at the moment that there will be any active preparations for a restart of the plant now,” the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Russia has not acknowledged the power line project. Ukraine sent a note to the IAEA and its membership on Wednesday raising concerns about the power line construction.
“These actions represent a blatant violation of international law and an infringement on Ukraine’s sovereignty,” Kyiv said in its letter.
“The construction of this transmission line is a clear indication of the Russian Federation’s intent to initiate an unauthorised restart of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant – a facility that remains the sovereign property of Ukraine.”
It added: “Any operation of the [plant] without explicit authorisation of the Ukrainian nuclear regulator is illegal and poses a direct and unacceptable threat to nuclear safety.”
