Drone strikes turbine hall at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant; IAEA chief warns of 'playing with fire'

The incident

On Saturday evening, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed it had been notified by the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) that a drone struck the turbine building of unit 6. According to initial reports, the impact created a breach in the wall. The plant's management stated that main equipment was not damaged, radiation levels remained normal, and no operational disruptions occurred. The IAEA team stationed at the Russian-controlled facility in south-eastern Ukraine immediately requested access to the damaged building to conduct a direct inspection and assess the extent of the damage.

Attacking nuclear facilities is like playing with fire.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi expressed serious concern over the reported incident, emphasizing that such an event threatens both the seven indispensable pillars for ensuring nuclear safety during conflict and the five concrete principles for protecting the ZNPP, which unequivocally state that there should be no attacks of any kind from or against the plant. The agency noted that if confirmed, this would be the first drone attack within the plant's perimeter since April 2024.

Competing accusations

Russia immediately blamed Ukraine for the strike. Alexei Likhachev, head of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, told Interfax that a Ukrainian kamikaze drone controlled via fiber-optic cable — which he claimed rules out GPS jamming — struck the turbine hall of unit 6, causing a subsequent detonation and leaving a hole in the wall. Likhachev characterized the incident as the first deliberate targeted attack with a through-and-through explosion and damage to the turbine hall building.

Ukraine categorically rejected the accusations. The Ukrainian Armed Forces stated that reports spread by occupation sources about an alleged attack by Ukraine's Defense Forces on ZNPP facilities constitute another attempt to discredit Ukraine and conceal Russia's own criminal actions. Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs firmly dismissed what it called another baseless Russian accusation, describing it as a disinformation operation by the occupying state aimed at diverting international attention from the real source of nuclear danger at the plant: the illegal Russian occupation of the facility.

Russian accusations, as usual, lack logic: it is unclear for what purpose Ukraine would carry out strikes on its own nuclear power plant, located on its territory, which it wants to regain under its sovereign control.

Ukrainian officials also argued that they lack the means to cause the described damage. A fiber-optic-controlled drone would have to launch from the Ukrainian-controlled city of Nikopol, which they claim is too far to strike the Zaporizhzhia plant while being steered via fiber-optic cable.

Broader context of drone activity

In mid-May, Reuters cited an IAEA statement noting a significant increase in Russian drone activity near Ukrainian nuclear facilities. Over just two days — May 13 and 14 — more than 160 drone overflights were recorded near the South Ukraine, Chornobyl, and Rivne nuclear power plants. While no direct threat to the safety of those facilities was identified at the time, experts flagged the alarming scale of the phenomenon. Grossi had already called for restraint from military actions near nuclear sites to avoid the risk of potentially dangerous accidents.

The ZNPP under occupation

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe's largest with a capacity of 6 GW, has been under Russian control since the early weeks of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. It has remained one of the most vulnerable points of the conflict. International institutions have repeatedly warned that military operations near the plant pose a nuclear safety risk not only to Ukraine but to the entire region. The facility has experienced the highest number of nuclear safety incidents of any Ukrainian site. On April 26, 2026, the plant lost external power for the fifteenth time since February 2022. On Friday, just before the drone strike, the ZNPP experienced a 12-hour power outage due to heightened military activity in the area — the longest such interruption since the Russian occupation began.

Diplomatic implications

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry noted that the current provocation takes place on the eve of the June session of the IAEA Board of Governors, during which member states will consider the Agency's Annual Report for 2025 and the Director General's Report on safeguards implementation. Kyiv called on Board members not to support granting the Russian Federation a seat on the IAEA Board of Governors during the June session. The IAEA stated it will update information on the incident once its team provides a report after obtaining the requested access to the site.