Kyiv, Ukraine: The UN’s nuclear monitoring agency chief warned Sunday that a drone strike on a reactor at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant could cause a major nuclear accident.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, in a message on social media, stated that at least three direct impacts on ZNPP’s primary reactor containment structures had occurred. “This cannot happen,” he remarked.
He mentioned it was the first attempt since November 2022, when he established five guidelines to prevent a severe nuclear disaster with radioactive effects.
In a second statement, the IAEA confirmed drone assaults’ physical effects on the facility, including one of its six reactors, with one casualty reported.
The report stated, “Damage at unit 6 hasn’t compromised nuclear safety, but it’s an emergency with potential effects on the reactor’s containment system stability.”
Plant officials reported no significant damage or deaths, and radiation levels at the facility were expected following the hits. Later on Sunday, the Russian state-owned nuclear organization Rosatom reported three injuries in an “unprecedented series of drone attacks,” notably when a drone struck an area near the site’s cafeteria.
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed being notified of the drone attack and stated, “Such an explosion correlates with IAEA observations.”
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the UN’s nuclear monitoring organization, warned against such assaults without assigning blame.
“I recommend refraining from practices violating the 5 IAEA standards and threatening nuclear safety,” he said on social networking platform X.
The power plant has been trapped on the battlefield since Moscow pushed soldiers into Ukraine in 2022, seizing it immediately after. The IAEA regularly raises concerns over Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, citing risks of a nuclear disaster. Ukraine and Russia repeatedly accuse each other of assaulting the facility, which remains near the combat lines.
The plant’s six reactors have been off for months, but it still needs power and skilled personnel to run critical cooling systems and other safety features.
Also on Sunday, a Russian rocket struck a house in the front-line town of Huliaipole in Ukraine’s partially controlled southern Zaporizhzhia region, killing three people, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov. Later on Sunday, two persons were injured in another bombardment of Huliaipole.
Additionally, three persons were injured in Russian shelling in Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv area, according to regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov.
In Russia, a girl died, and four others were injured after debris from a downed Ukrainian drone landed on a car transporting a family of six in the Belgorod area bordering Ukraine, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.