Ukraine attempted to strike Zaporizhzhia spent fuel storage, says Russia’s Rosatom

A Ukrainian drone struck a passage connecting the six reactor units at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant overnight, the head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom said on Saturday.

The drone hit a gallery used by personnel to move between the plant’s six power units, Alexey Likhachev said in a statement published by Rosatom on Telegram.

“Fortunately, there was no explosion. The strike occurred just a few meters from the reactor compartment of Unit 3,” he said of the facility, located in Russian-controlled southeastern Ukraine.

The official added that Ukrainian forces had also tried to strike the plant’s dry spent nuclear fuel storage facility last week.

Likhachev said the plant is currently receiving electricity through a single 330-kilovolt transmission line after a second line, which he said had been repaired by Russian crews in June, had not been reconnected.

He also said the nearby city of Enerhodar, where most plant employees live, has faced repeated drone and artillery attacks in recent days, disrupting electricity and water supplies.

According to him, one woman was killed in a drone strike on a residential building on Friday, while 15 residents have been killed and 51 injured since late April.

Likhachev criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for “insufficient efforts to ensure the plant’s safety” and said consultations had included the possibility of a visit by its Director General Rafael Grossi to Enerhodar and the nuclear plant.

Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power station, has been under Russian control since March 2022, less than a month after the current conflict began, and has repeatedly come under shelling and drone attacks during the war, with Moscow and Kyiv accusing each other of endangering the facility.

The IAEA has repeatedly warned that military activity around the nuclear plant poses a serious nuclear safety risk and has maintained a monitoring mission at the site since 2022.