A Ukrainian drone attack on Monday killed a driver at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), which has been under Russian control since the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to a spokeswoman for the plant’s Russian-installed management, the attack marked the first time an employee was killed by a Ukrainian attack. “This is the first case when a Zaporizhzhia NPP employee was killed in a Ukrainian strike while at his workstation,” the spokeswoman said, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.
“Previously, our employees had only been wounded in such enemy attacks. The lone death was Andrey Korotky, who was killed in a terror attack by the Kiev regime in Energodar,” she added.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has inspectors based at the ZNPP, also released a statement on the attack. “IAEA has been informed by the ZNPP that a drone strike this morning killed a driver at its transport workshop in the vicinity of the plant site,” the IAEA said.
The agency added that its director, Rafael Grossi, “reiterates that strikes on or near NPPs can endanger nuclear safety and must not take place. The IAEA’s team on the site will look into the incident and continue to monitor the situation.”
Ukraine hasn’t commented on the attack, but it came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was engaged in “nuclear terrorism” because its drones pass over the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and one once crashed into the plant’s protective shell, though Moscow denied responsibility.
The incident at the ZNPP comes as Russia and Ukraine have been trading daily massive drone attacks, resulting in civilian deaths on both sides.
