Drones last week attacked parts of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed this week.
“On Sunday, the International Support and Assistance Mission to ZNPP (ISAMZ) confirmed the first attacks since November 2022 to directly target Zaporizhzhya NPP,” Rafael Grossi, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) director general told the agency’s board of governors Thursday in Vienna.
The U.N. nuclear-power agency first reported the strikes in a statement on Saturday. IAEA did not say who was responsible for the attacks on the facility, which is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and has been under Russia’s control since the early days of the Federation’s latest invasion of its neighbor in 2022.
There was no damage to “critical nuclear safety or security systems at the site,” the IAEA wrote Saturday in its press release. An unspecified number of drones, some of which caused “detonations,” appeared to target “surveillance and communication equipment” near one of the plant’s six reactor buildings, the agency said.
There was also “at least one casualty,” IAEA said, citing “blood stains next to a damaged military logistics vehicle.”
IAEA personnel visited the site after the attack and observed “three affected locations,” plus Russian troops on a rooftop firing at “what appeared to be an approaching drone.” After the Russians fired on the drone, there was “an explosion near the reactor building,” IAEA said.
Agency personnel “observed remnants of drones” during their visit.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has contributed to U.S. efforts to monitor nuclear power plants in Ukrainian combat zones following Russia’s invasion and so-far-successful territorial grabs.
In Washington, the Senate in February approved a supplemental spending bill that would send the NNSA some extra funds for its efforts to aid Ukraine. The NNSA funding is a small part of a much larger military aid package for Ukraine, which so far has not gotten a vote in the House.
Media last week reported that Speaker of the House Michael Johnson (R-La.) might attempt to modify the Senate’s bill, either by rewriting it to change the financial terms on which the U.S. provides aid for Ukraine or by splitting the bill up into a series of smaller bills that could be passed one-at-a-time in the House, where some right-wing law makers, following the isolationist and sometimes Russia-accommodating views of former President Donald Trump (R), oppose the Senate’s bill.
As of deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, the House still had not voted on any part of the Ukraine supplemental.
In congressional testimony this week, Secretary of Defense Llyod Austin said that withholding aid from Ukraine makes the U.S. appear to be an “unreliable partner.”
“We would ask that Congress pass the supplemental as soon as possible because Ukraine matters and the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine will have global implications for our national security as well,” Austin said Tuesday in a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Without security assistance, [Ukraine] won’t be able to resupply the much needed air defense interceptors and air defense systems they need to protect their skies and protect their people. And [without further assistance] we would see things begin to atrophy in a very meaningful way in a short period of time.”
