An employee of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was killed at his home in a drone strike, the Russian-appointed management of the plant said, as cited by Reuters. According to the agency, this is the 15th nuclear plant employee killed since April. The Russian side claims that the strike was carried out by a Ukrainian drone.
The statement said that the employee had returned home after his shift when he was struck. The plant management said: “The Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to strike residential buildings in Enerhodar and nearby villages. Exhaustion from the incessant shelling and its consequences is growing rapidly. Living conditions in Enerhodar are directly linked to the security of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.”
The latest incident comes a week after the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that an employee of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant had been killed in a drone attack. In a separate attack, an employee of the nearby Zaporizhzhia Thermal Power Plant was also killed.
The plant remains dependent on external power supplies
Russia took control of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant during the first weeks of the war in Ukraine, which began with Russia’s invasion on February 24, 2022. Since then, Moscow and Kyiv have mutually accused each other of military actions that, in their assessment, threaten nuclear safety in the area.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant does not generate electricity, but it needs an external power supply to maintain cooling of the nuclear fuel in the reactors. Many of the plant’s employees live in Enerhodar, while the city and nearby villages frequently come under attack.
In July, Alexey Likhachev, head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, said that the plant’s chief engineer had been killed in a Ukrainian drone strike near the complex. The new report of an employee’s death is part of a series of claims about casualties among the plant’s staff, but information about responsibility for the individual attacks remains the subject of mutual accusations between Russia and Ukraine.
Sources: bta.bg