Russia accuses Ukrainian troops of attacking Zaporozhye nuclear power plant

Russian nuclear power company Rosatom on Sunday accused the Ukrainian military of launching a series of attacks on the Russian-controlled Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, with the United Nations nuclear watchdog calling for an immediate halt to such incidents. Rosatom said three people were injured, one seriously.

Russia urged world leaders to condemn the incident. Russian officials and the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency said radiation levels were normal and the damage was not serious.

A Ukrainian intelligence official said Kiev had nothing to do with Europe’s largest station attack and suggested the attacks were the work of the Russians themselves.

Reuters Battlefield accounts for both sides could not immediately be verified.

Russian troops seized the factory in the first weeks of their invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Each side accuses the other of attacking the plant, which is close to the front lines of the 25-month conflict, and risking a nuclear disaster.

A Rosatom statement said the first attack on the plant hit an area near a canteen, injuring three workers, but did not say what weapon was used.

Within half an hour, one drone allegedly struck a cargo loading area, and another then struck the dome of the sixth reactor.

Rosatom “categorically condemns this unprecedented attack,” the statement said, calling on International Atomic Energy Agency President Rafael Grossi and the European Union to respond immediately to the security threat.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova urged world leaders to condemn acts of “nuclear terrorism”.

“How many more times will the Ukrainian army have to target the Zaporozhye factory to get the West and the monster they have bred, Zelensky, to stop repeating the deadly acts of their bloody circus?” she wrote on Telegram, referring to Ukrainian President Vladimir Putin. Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Andriy Usov, spokesman for Ukraine’s HUR main intelligence service, denied any involvement.

“Russian attacks on Ukrainian nuclear power plants, including copycat attacks, have long been a well-known criminal act by intruders,” he wrote on Telegram.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has experts on site, reported on social media platform X that there were only one casualty.

“The damage to Unit 6 does not affect nuclear safety, but it is a serious incident that has the potential to compromise the integrity of the reactor containment system,” the agency said.

The IAEA’s Grossi added that there had been three “direct attacks” on such structures. “This can’t happen,” he wrote.

The plant has six Soviet-designed VVER-1000 V-320 water-cooled and water-moderated reactors containing uranium-235, and the facility also contains spent nuclear fuel.

According to the plant, reactors 1, 2, 5 and 6 are in a cold shutdown, reactor 3 is in a maintenance shutdown, and reactor 4 is in a so-called hot shutdown.