UN Watchdog Warns Safety Is ‘Deteriorating’ at Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant outside Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, on Sept. 2, 2022. International Atomic Energy Agency/Handout via Reuters

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog on Saturday warned that the safety situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is “deteriorating” following a drone strike over the past weekend.

The plant has been controlled by Russia since the early days of the Ukraine war, in March 2022. Last week, both Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for a fire and alleged drone strike at the power plant, although the U.N. watchdog at the time said that there was “no impact reported.”

But on Saturday, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a news release that his office is reporting “an escalation of the nuclear safety and security dangers facing the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant” after a drone strike hit the road near the plant on Saturday.

“I remain extremely concerned and reiterate my call for maximum restraint from all sides and for strict observance of the five concrete principles established for the protection of the plant,” he said.

According to the release, an explosive carried by a drone detonated near the plant’s protected area, close to a cooling water sprinkler and about 350 feet from the lone power line providing power to the plant.

Military activity around the plant, his office said, remained intense over the past week, with “frequent explosions” as well as machine gun and artillery fire around the Zaporizhzhia plant, located in southeastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, there have been no signs of a reduction in fighting around the vicinity of the plant, the agency added.

The IAEA report said there were no casualties and no impact on any nuclear power plant equipment. However, there was impact to the road between the two main gates of the plant.

Ivan Fedorov, the Ukrainian official in charge of Zaporizhzhia’s military administration, said on social media that Moscow has launched a total of 299 drones in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, where the plant is located, on Saturday. He added that 93 strikes in locations across the oblast were also reported, according to the post.

After last week’s plant fire was reported, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media that “Russian terrorists” who control the power plant were to blame and that the “situation is not and cannot be normal.”

“Since the first day of its seizure, Russia has been using the Zaporizhzhia NPP only to blackmail Ukraine, all of Europe, and the world,” he said last week.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant director, Yuriy Chernichuk, who was installed by the Russian government, said in a statement that it was a Ukrainian drone carrying flammable liquid that caused the fire.

The drone “flew through the top into the cooling tower and detonated,” he said, according to Russian state-run media Ria Novosti. “Judging by the speed with which the fire started, we can assume that there was something else there—bottles of gasoline or napalm because the fire broke out very quickly and spread over a large area.”

The world’s worst nuclear disaster took place in 1986 in Chernobyl, Ukraine, while the country was under the control of the Soviet Union. At the time, the communist regime denied the disaster’s scale before it was forced to make evacuations of the area around the plant, which to this day remains uninhabited.

The U.N.’s latest statement comes as Ukrainian forces continue to hold positions in Russia’s Kursk region, nearly two weeks after Kyiv launched a surprise cross-border incursion. Ukraine still remains under pressure in the eastern part of the country. The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank said that it’s too early to tell whether the Ukrainian offensive will have a lasting effect on its overall outcome.

“A Russian counteroffensive operation to retake territory seized by Ukrainian forces in Kursk Oblast will very likely require even more manpower, equipment, and materiel,” it said. “Russian sources have claimed that Ukrainian forces are consolidating their positions within Kursk Oblast and building fortifications, although it is too early to assess how hard Ukraine forces will defend occupied positions within Russia against likely Russian counteroffensive operations.”