In a Ukrainian drone attack near the Russian‑held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Tuesday, two people were killed in a vehicle, including a female employee of the plant, the facility’s management said in a statement released by Reuters.
The statement, which did not specify the location of the incident, identified the employee as the third person killed at the plant in the past two weeks and the 13th death since the plant’s seizure in April. It added: "Attacks on civilian cars, killing of peaceful people – this is targeted terrorism. People must not become targets."
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had previously confirmed that an employee at the plant had been killed, but it did not provide details. The agency’s director‑general, Rafael Grossi, has repeatedly urged military forces to exercise restraint around the facility, which remains offline.
In the broader context, Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, reported in July that the plant’s chief engineer had been killed by a Ukrainian drone near the station. Moscow’s forces seized the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power station with six reactors, in the first weeks of the invasion that began in February 2022.
Both sides have routinely accused each other of carrying out actions that could compromise nuclear safety at the plant, raising concerns among international bodies about the risk of a nuclear accident. The plant’s management’s statement, while condemning the attack, did not comment on any potential damage to the reactors themselves.
Ukraine has not issued a response to the plant’s statement. The incident underscores the growing danger of armed conflict in proximity to critical infrastructure, a warning that the IAEA has echoed on multiple occasions.
As monitoring by the IAEA continues, the international community watches the situation closely, with provisional reports of the incident adding to a growing list of casualties near the plant since its seizure.
No further public statements have been released from either side, leaving the full scope of the attack and its impact on the plant’s operations unresolved at this time.
