Drone attacks kill two workers at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant area, IAEA says

Two deaths reported on Monday

The International Atomic Energy Agency said on X that a drone attack had killed one employee of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in south-eastern Ukraine, a site Russian forces seized in the early days of the 2022 invasion. In a separate attack on Monday, 9 November, a worker at the nearby thermal power station was also killed by a drone, according to the agency. The IAEA did not say who carried out either strike. Plant management installed by Moscow blamed Ukrainian armed forces for the first death, saying a drone hit the man's car while he was on his way to work. The head of Russia's state nuclear company Rosatom also held Ukraine responsible, while Kyiv had not commented at first.

Grossi condemns the strikes

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi condemned the attacks in sharp terms, arguing that they violate essential pillars of nuclear safety. He called for all such attacks to stop immediately. The agency stressed that employees at nuclear facilities must be able to carry out their work without excessive stress or fear. The IAEA's statement on X came the same day the deaths were reported, and the agency has repeatedly declined to assign blame for military incidents around the site.

Earlier deaths at the plant

The IAEA had already reported a death at the plant from a drone attack at the end of October. According to Russian accounts, another plant employee was killed at that time when a drone struck his vehicle on the way to the plant. Russian accounts also describe a cleaner at the plant who was killed in early November in a drone attack in the nearby town of Enerhodar. Taken together, the reported deaths form a sequence of attacks in the area over a matter of weeks, with the latest two falling on the same day.

The condition of the plant

The Zaporizhzhia plant is Europe's largest nuclear power station, and it has been under Russian control since the early days of the invasion. Its six reactors have been shut down since September 2022, but they still need cooling, which depends on external power lines or diesel generators. A power outage over the weekend forced staff to switch to generators. IAEA experts have been stationed at the plant since September 2022. The site sits on the Dnipro river, and the front line between Ukrainian and Russian troops runs through the area.

Wider war and open questions

Ukraine has been defending itself for more than four and a half years against Russia's full-scale invasion. Overnight, both sides also carried out attacks in other regions, and Ukrainian authorities said three people were killed in the Odesa region. Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of endangering the plant. As of the latest reports, Kyiv had not responded to the claims about the Monday deaths, and it remains unclear who was responsible for the drone strikes that killed the two workers.