A journalist was injured in Russian attacks on Zaporizhia, Ukraine. For the first time since November 2022, the local nuclear power plant was also hit in the attacks.
The Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine has become the target of drone attacks. The protective cover of the sixth reactor was hit three times, said the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, on the social network X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday. According to the IAEA, nuclear safety was not at risk. Nevertheless, this was “a serious incident that had the potential to violate the integrity of the reactor protective envelope,” said the authority, which has a team of observers constantly on site. The Russian power plant management blamed Ukraine for the attacks; Kyiv rejected this.
According to Grossi, the direct hits on Europe’s largest nuclear facility, Zaporizhia, were the first since November 2022. “This must not happen,” he wrote. Nobody can derive military or political benefit from attacks on nuclear facilities. The Russian power plant management reported that a drone exploded over the dome of the sixth reactor. On its Telegram channel, the factory management blamed the Ukrainian army for the attack. But there was no dangerous damage, it said. The radiation in and around the nuclear power plant corresponds to the norm.
According to Russian information, a drone hit the nuclear power plant’s canteen earlier on Sunday. Three employees were injured. The IAEA, however, only had information about one victim. The information provided by the Russian side could not be verified. She has been complaining for days about increasing drone attacks on the plant and blames Ukraine for them.
However, the spokesman for the military intelligence service HUR in Kiev, Andriy Yusov, asserted that Ukraine was not involved in the “military provocations” at the power plant. Such fake attacks are common practice of the Russian occupiers, he told the online portal “Ukrainskaya Pravda”. The nuclear power plant was occupied by Russian troops in spring 2022. The six reactors are idle but need to be cooled.
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Source: Stern
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