The
United Nations has urged restraint from
Russia and
Ukraine after multiple drones were shot down over Europe’s largest nuclear power plant - as they warned that it risked causing a “major nuclear accident”. Russia claimed on Monday that they had shot down a Ukrainian drone over the roof of Reactor 6 at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), less than 24 hours after the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), confirmed three earlier attacks on Sunday. “Today, a kamikaze drone was shot down over the plant. It fell on the roof of Unit 6,” the Russia-controlled plant said, below a picture of reactor No. 6, which is currently shut down. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has six Soviet-designed VVER-1000 V-320 water-cooled and water-moderated reactors containing Uranium 235. They were all built in the 1980s, though the sixth only came online in the mid-1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. All but one of the reactors are in cold shutdown . Reactor unit 4 is in “hot shutdown”, mainly for heating purposes. Ukraine denied both drone attacks, claiming that Russia was carrying out imitation strikes designed to implicate Kyiv. Ukrainian intelligence agency spokesperson Andriy Usov said the drone strikes were carried out by Russia and used to accuse Ukraine of terrorism. He said this was a “well known criminal practice of the invaders”. An official at Energoatom, Ukraine's atomic energy company, blamed Russia for the attacks, saying they were "a provocation" orchestrated to malign Ukraine. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record. The IAEA, which has workers present at the site, declined to attribute blame for the attacks, choosing instead to reiterate the risks of a disaster at the plant. “Russian troops engaged what appeared to be an approaching drone,” the agency said after the strikes on Sunday. “This was followed by an
explosion near the reactor building.” They said they had not observed any structural damages and the containment structures of the nuclear reactors are made of steel-lined reinforced concrete, designed to withstand the impact of a small
plane crash. But agency chief Rafael Mariano Grossi said the attack was nonetheless “reckless”. “This is a major escalation of the nuclear safety and security dangers facing the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” he said. “Such reckless attacks significantly increase the risk of a major nuclear accident and must cease immediately.” He has previously said that fighting a war around a nuclear plant has put nuclear safety and security in “constant jeopardy”. Located on the frontline in the city of Enerhodar, the plant was wrested out of Ukrainian control shortly after
Vladimir Putin launched his full-invasion of Ukraine. Special
Russian MILITARY units guard the facility and a unit of Russia’s state nuclear company, Rosatom, runs the plant. It is just 300 miles from the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakhorova urged world leaders to condemn what she called an act of “nuclear terrorism”, using propagandistic language often employed by the
Kremlin to describe Ukrainian activity. It came as Ukrainian officials reported a spate of Russian attacks across the wider Zaporizhzhia region, around 25 per cent of which is outside of Kremlin control. “Three people were killed and three people were wounded in the Pologivskyi district,” wrote local governor Ivan Federov on the Telegram messenger service, referring to an area of the region some 100 miles from the nuclear power plant. He later wrote that another six people were injured during a strike on an unnamed industrial facility somewhere else in Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, accused Russia of committing “heinous crimes” over its relentless bombardment of the northeast border city of Kharkiv. Ukraine’s second largest city, less than 20 miles from the Russian border, has been heavily bombed by Kremlin forces over the past month. Officials have reported that fighter jets have even dropped guided aerial bombs, nicknamed “building destroyers”. “Kharkiv. Every day and night, the city is subjected to heinous Russian attacks,” Mr Zelensky wrote on X. “We are making every effort to provide better protection for it.” He added: “Our partners can assist with air defence and exerting pressure on Russia. And I thank everyone who is already assisting.” Mr Zelensky was issuing the latest in his now daily plea for more air defences as
British foreign secretary David Cameron announced that he will travel to
Washington next week to urge the US to finally push through a $60 billion (£48bn) military package for Kyiv. The bill has been trapped for seven months in the lower chamber of
Congress, the House of Representatives, victim to
Donald Trump supporters determined to secure more funds for shoring up the southern border with
Mexico. Next week, Lord Cameron will meet with Mike Johnson, the
Republican speaker of the House who has blocked a vote on passing this aid bill, to convince him to change his mind. “Speaker Johnson can make it happen in Congress,” Lord Cameron said in a video posted on
Social Media platform X. “I’m going to go and see him next week and say, ‘Ukraine needs that money. It is
American security, it’s European security, it’s Britain’s security that’s on the line in Ukraine, and they need our help.”