The Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station said on Monday that it had shot down a Ukrainian drone over the roof of Reactor No. 6. The plant, which is the largest in Europe, stopped generating power after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 but still needs a steady supply of electricity to keep its safety features working. It also remains close to the front lines, which makes it a target for both sides in the conflict.
The plant’s statement said, “Today, a kamikaze drone was shot down over the plant. It fell on the roof of Unit 6.” The facility says it has restored a 330 kilovolt (kV) line and a 750 kV line to access electricity from the grid, but they will only be used for the plant’s safety functions. According to the plant, the reactor itself is currently shut down.
Both lines are connected to the power plant through a nearby thermal power station switchyard. This means the incoming electricity could be channeled to other parts of the plant, like the faulty reactor control room where the blast occurred. The plant has previously said that the damage caused by the explosion could threaten “the safety of all staff and the stability of the entire nuclear power complex.”
Analysts say that if Russia lost access to electricity at the Zaporizhzhia plant, it would risk a catastrophic meltdown similar to what happened at Chornobyl in 1986. The plant would melt down, leaking radioactive contamination into the environment and possibly poisoning the food chain. Experts say this could affect the countries immediately around the site and much of the world.
Russia says that the damage to the Zaporizhzhia site, which it seized in March after a costly and reckless assault, was caused by Ukrainian attacks. The country’s defense intelligence agency, the Main Directorate of Intelligence, denied involvement in the incidents but accused Kyiv of launching “armed provocations on the territory of the occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP,” the news service Ukrainska Pravda reported on Monday.
Satellite imagery of the plant taken in early July and over the weekend by the company Planet shows Russian military vehicles parked near some administrative buildings. Tents are also erected in the area where some of the plant’s six reactors are located.
On Sunday, a civilian was killed, and four people were wounded by a Russian projectile in the frontline village of Guliaipole in Ukraine’s primarily occupied southeastern Zaporizhzhia region. The frontline town is close to the Zaporizhzhia power plant. Ukraine accuses Russia of shelling its nuclear facilities, which are not yet fully operational, and has demanded that the International Atomic Energy Agency send an expert team to assess the situation at the plant. The IAEA has confirmed the physical impact of the drone attacks on a reactor building at the plant, but it says the damage does not jeopardize nuclear safety. The agency’s chief, Rafael Mariano Grossi, is in Ukraine to oversee the mission.
