A Russian controlled nuclear power plant inside Ukraine has been attacked by drones, claim officials at the site.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was taken by Vladimir Putin's forces early in the war and the area has seen heavy fighting since causing safety fears. In the latest incident Russian officials have said that the plant was attacked on Sunday by Ukrainian military drones, including a strike on the dome of the site's sixth power unit.
According to the plant authorities, there was no critical damage or casualties and radiation levels at the plant were normal after the strikes. While the head of the UN's atomic watchdog agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said that the drone attack "significantly increases" the risk of a major nuclear accident.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said that its experts had been informed of the drone strike and that "such detonation is consistent with IAEA observations". It reported one casualty and said: "Damage at unit 6 has not compromised nuclear safety, but this is a serious incident with potential to undermine the integrity of the reactor's containment system."
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was taken by Vladimir Putin's forces early in the war (Maxar Technologies/AFP via Getty)And in a statement on social media Mr Grossi confirmed at least three direct hits against the main reactor containment structures took place. "This cannot happen," he stated. He said it was the first such attack since November 2022, when he set out five basic principles to avoid a serious nuclear accident with radiological consequences.
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The IAEA has repeatedly expressed alarm about the nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, amid fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe. Both Ukraine and Russia have regularly accused the other of attacking the plant, which is still close to the front lines and there have been periods where the electricity supply has been cut off.
The plant's six reactors have been shut down for months, but it still needs power and qualified staff to operate crucial cooling systems and other safety features. Also on Sunday, three people were wounded in Russian shelling in Ukraine's north-east region of Kharkiv, according to regional governor Oleh Syniehubov. In Russia, a girl died and four other people were wounded when the debris of a downed Ukrainian drone fell on a car carrying a family of six people in Russia's Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian soldiers claim that Russian forces have regularly targeted them with illegal chemical weapons. The accusations are the latest claims of war crimes against Moscow, with U kraine troops saying they have been attacked by small drones dropping tear gas or other chemicals on them. Russian forces would use these substances to force embedded Ukrainian troops outside of their trenches or sheltered positions and then eliminate them with conventional weapons, reportedly said soldiers.
The commander of a Ukrainian reconnaissance team deployed near the frontline city of Chasiv Yar, in the Donetsk region, said: "Nearly every position in our area of the front was getting one or two gas grenades dropped on them a day." The use of the chemical substances - known as CS - are banned during wartime under the Chemical Weapons Convention. "The only way for them to successfully attack us was with gas," the commander told the Telegraph.
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