Kremlin says drone kills top engineer at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

A drone strike near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant killed chief engineer Alexander Yakovlev and the driver of his service car, sharpening fears around a site that already sits at the center of Europe’s most dangerous nuclear standoff. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it had been informed by Russia and called the incident an unacceptable attack on the plant and its management.

Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev said the drone hit a service vehicle between the plant site and Enerhodar, the nearby town that has become part of the wartime geography around the facility. Russian authorities framed the episode as a Ukrainian strike on a civilian nuclear site. Ukrainian officials have denied responsibility in previous Zaporizhzhia-related allegations.

The plant itself is no ordinary power station. Zaporizhzhia is Europe’s largest nuclear plant, with six reactors. Russian forces seized it in March 2022, and all six reactors were shut down in September 2022. Even with the reactors offline, the IAEA has continued to describe the site as a serious nuclear safety and security concern because it remains close to the frontline and vulnerable to damage, especially to power supply and other critical systems.

That warning has shaped the agency’s approach since 2022. The IAEA has kept a presence at the plant and has continued to discuss with both sides how to protect backup power and safety systems and reduce the chance of an accident. In earlier statements, director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said fighting around a nuclear facility violates the principle that the physical integrity of nuclear installations must be maintained, and he has repeatedly stressed that the priority is the safety and security of the plant, its power supply and the people who operate it.

The killing of Yakovlev underscores how attacks around Zaporizhzhia are used both as battlefield acts and as information warfare. Each side presents the plant as proof of the other’s recklessness, while the physical risk stays rooted in a six-reactor complex that remains one wrong move away from a broader nuclear emergency.