Nuclear disaster risk at Ukrainian power station: International atomic watchdog says attack on Zaporizhzhia plant at the weekend could spark 'major' radiation accident

A drone attack that hit the Russian-held Zaporizhizhia power plant in Ukraine three times on Sunday could spark a 'major' radiation incident, said the UN's atomic watchdog.

During the attack, one of the facility's six reactors was hit, and resulted in three people being left injured.

Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate spokesman Andriy Yusov accused Russia of not only endangering the plant, but also the civilian population and the environment by carrying out attacks on a nuclear facility.  

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has previously urged both Moscow and Kyiv to restrain from targeting the Zaporizhizhia plant.

The IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi deemed the strikes as 'reckless' and 'a major escalation of the nuclear safety and security dangers' facing the plant.

A drone attack that hit Zaporizhizhia power plant in Ukraine three times on Sunday could spark a 'major' radiation incident, said The International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi

Russian forces took control of the plant in 2022 shortly after their full-scale invasion of Ukraine

'Attacking a nuclear power plant is an absolute no go,' Grossi said.

'Although the damage at unit 6 has not compromised nuclear safety, this was a serious incident that had the potential to undermine the integrity of the reactor's containment system.

'Such reckless attacks significantly increase the risk of a major nuclear accident and must cease immediately,' he added.

Following the triple-strike Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova urged world leaders to condemn the act of 'nuclear terrorism.'

Zakharova asked how many more times Ukraine would endanger nuclear safety at the plant before Western leaders took action.

The IAEA said its experts had confirmed three drone attacks and that Russian troops engaged what appeared to be a drone approaching reactor No. 6. 

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

Reactors Number 1, 2, 5 and 6 are currently in cold shutdown while Reactor Number 3 is shut down for repair and Reactor Number 4 is in so-called 'hot shutdown', according to the plant.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has experts at the site, said it was the first time the nuclear plant, Europe's largest, was directly targeted since November 2022.

Russian forces took control of the plant in 2022 shortly after their full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

The plant remains close to the front lines, and both Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of risking a nuclear accident by attacking the plant.

Russia pointed the finger at Ukraine regarding Sunday's strikes.

Russia's state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, said Ukraine attacked the plant three times on Sunday with drones, first injuring three near a canteen, then attacking a cargo area and then the dome above reactor Number 6.

'Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station has been subjected to an unprecedented series of drone attacks, a direct threat to the safety of the plant,' Rosatom said.

'The radiation levels at the plant and the surrounding area have not changed,' it said.

A Ukrainian intelligence official said Kyiv had nothing to do with any strikes on the station and suggested they were the work of Russians themselves.

'Ukraine was not involved in any armed provocations on the site,' Yusov told the Ukrainska Pravda news website.

He added that Russia is 'illegally' occupying the plant. 

Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir in Nikopol

Sunday's drone strikes come after Russia fired five missiles on Zaporizhzhia on Friday, which killed at least four people and injured 20 others 

'Russian strikes, including imitation ones, on the territory of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant ... have long been a well known criminal practice of the invaders,' a spokesperson for Ukraine's HUR Main Intelligence Directorate, Andriy Usov, added.

In February, the IAEA said its team of experts at the plant had heard explosions every day for a week.

At the time, Mr Grossi said: 'For more than two years now, nuclear safety and security in Ukraine has been in constant jeopardy.

'We remain determined to do everything we can to help minimise the risk of a nuclear accident that could harm people and the environment, not only in Ukraine.'

The drone strikes come after Russia fired five missiles on Zaporizhzhia on Friday, which killed at least four people and injured 20 others. 

Firefighters work at a site of a Russian air strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine on Sunday

Firefighters extinguish a fire at the site of a missile strike 

Residential buildings and industrial facilities were damaged, the regional governor said.

The Zaporizhzhia power plant sits roughly 80 miles up the Dnieper river from the Kakhovka dam, which was heavily damaged in explosions on June 6 2023.

Since Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, fears of a nuclear disaster have been sparked on several occasions when the plant was shelled and was temporarily disconnected from Ukraine's power grid.

The city of Zaporizhzhia itself is less than 35 miles away and housed 750,000 people before the war.

Three civilians were also killed in a Russian attack on the frontline village of Guliaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region on Sunday morning, the local governor said.

'Two men and a woman died under the rubble of their own house, which was hit by a Russian shell,' Ivan Fedorov said on the Telegram messaging app. 

Ukraine's forces destroyed all 17 attack drones launched by Russia, the Ukrainian military said on Sunday.

'At night the Russian occupiers attacked Ukraine once again, using 17 attack drones. The Ukrainian air defence forces destroyed all of them,' the Ukrainian General Staff said on Facebook.