Drone strikes hit power hub feeding Europe's largest nuclear plant, IAEA says

The International Atomic Energy Agency announced that drones targeted the Zaporizhzhia Thermal Power Plant on Sept. 19, 20 and 27, impairing transformers essential for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant’s off-site electricity. The nuclear facility, Europe’s largest, has been under Russian occupation since 2022 and relies on the thermal plant’s power. The IAEA did not attribute the attacks but said they threaten the nuclear plant’s safety.

Director General Rafael Grossi is working on a new localized cease-fire to enable repairs, which would be the eighth IAEA-mediated pause aimed at protecting the plant’s power supply. Prior incidents include a Sept. 22 strike that disabled an external radiation monitoring station and a separate attack in Enerhodar that killed one person. The agency has warned that rising drone activity heightens the risk of a nuclear accident.