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A Ukrainian combat drone struck the turbine hall building at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, triggering an explosion and damaging the structure, Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom reported Saturday.
The attack left a hole in the wall of the turbine hall, though the plant's main equipment was not affected, according to the company. Rosatom stated that the drone was operated through a fiber-optic control system, arguing that the strike could not have occurred accidentally.
Alexey Likhachev, director general of Rosatom, described the incident as the first deliberate attack targeting key equipment at a nuclear power plant that resulted in structural damage to a turbine hall building.
He pointed to the drone's guidance system as evidence that the facility had been intentionally targeted, warning that repeated attacks on nuclear infrastructure were increasing the risk of a serious incident in the region.
"Today we are one step closer to an incident that could highly likely affect even those living far beyond the borders of Russia and Ukraine, who still believe they are completely safe," he said.
Separately, authorities in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region announced the creation of a new government body responsible for protecting energy infrastructure from drone attacks.
According to the regional government's press service, the new Ministry for the Protection of Facilities of the Nizhny Novgorod Region will oversee efforts to safeguard critical infrastructure.
The region hosts several strategic energy and industrial facilities, including the NORSI oil refinery near Kstovo, one of Russia's largest fuel-processing plants, as well as oil pumping stations, fuel storage facilities and power-generation infrastructure.
Russian authorities have increasingly moved to strengthen protection around such sites as Ukrainian drone strikes have reached deeper into Russian territory.
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