KYIV, Ukraine — An explosion caused by an alleged drone attack at Europe's largest nuclear plant in Ukraine on Tuesday posed no direct threat to its safety but underscored the “extremely serious situation” at the facility that repeatedly has been caught in the war's crossfire, the U.N.'s atomic watchdog agency said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said its team was aware of an explosion at a training center next to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. It said it was informed the blast was from a drone attack but gave no further details.
The agency's information presumably came from Russians who have occupied and run the plant since the war's early stages.
The Zaporizhzhia facility is one of the 10 biggest nuclear plants in the world. Fighting in the southern part of Ukraine where it is located has raised the specter of a potential nuclear disaster like the one at Chernobyl in 1986, where a reactor exploded and blew deadly radiation across a vast area.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine in recent months has been able to make significant advances along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line crossing eastern and southern Ukraine. Drones, artillery and missiles have featured heavily in what has become a war of attrition.
Russia and Ukraine have frequently traded accusations over the Zaporizhzhia plant. On Monday, Moscow alleged Ukraine was behind drone attacks on the facility a day before, and Kyiv accused Russia of
