Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky makes a statement at the start of his first visit to NATO's headquarters on Oct. 11.SIMON WOHLFAHRT/AFP/Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a Russian drone attack early on Wednesday in western Khmelnitskyi region had probably targeted the area’s nuclear power station.
The attack shattered windows at the plant and injured 20 people.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, said blasts from the drone attack did not affect the plant’s operations or its connection to the grid. Power was temporarily cut to some off-site radiation monitoring stations.
In his nightly video address, Zelensky said the attack provided yet more evidence that tougher sanctions were needed against Russia.
“It is most likely that the target for these drones was the Khmelnitskyi nuclear power station.” he said. “The shock wave from the explosion shattered windows, including on the nuclear power station’s premises.”
Zelensky said every Russian strike, “especially those daring enough to target nuclear power stations and other critical facilities, serves as an argument that pressure on the terrorist state is insufficient.”
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, in a statement, said: “The fact that numerous windows at the site were destroyed shows just how close it was. Next time, we may not be so fortunate.”
Ukraine’s air force destroyed all 11 Russian drones launched overnight, the military said. Damage was caused by blast waves and falling debris, according to the interior minister.
“At night, the enemy struck territory near the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant. As a result of the explosion, windows in administrative and laboratory buildings have been damaged,” the Energy Ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.
Power lines were also damaged, it added, with more than 1,800 consumers in the adjacent towns of Netishyn and Slavuta facing power cuts.
In Slavuta, 20 buildings were damaged, including a building used by a fire and rescue unit and another by a police department, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram.
The town’s mayor, Vasiliy Sydor, said 20 people were hurt.
Reuters was not able to verify the reports.
The Khmelnytskyi region has regularly been a target of attacks by Russian drones and missiles, which analysts link to a military airfield in the region.
Ukraine’s five nuclear power stations have been a point of contention in the 20-month-old Russian invasion. Russia occupied the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest such facility, early in the conflict and each side has since routinely accused the other of planning to shell or attack the site.
Meanwhile, a local resident was killed in an early morning air attack on Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, the governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Wednesday.
“At about 07:20, the enemy dropped a guided aerial bomb on a residential area of the city (of Beryslav). It hit a house. Unfortunately, a 42-year-old man was fatally wounded,” Prokudin said on the Telegram messaging app.
Kyiv drove Russian forces out of part of the Kherson region last November after several months of occupation, but Russian troops have continued shelling the regional capital and areas around it from across the Dnipro River.
Prokudin said that over the past 24 hours, Russian forces had carried out 35 aerial attacks on the Kherson region.
Earlier this week, local authorities ruled on the mandatory evacuation of families with children from the three districts of the Kherson region due to the ongoing bomb attacks.
The authorities said 802 children and their families from 23 settlements must be evacuated.
Also, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu inspected command posts of Russian troops in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, his ministry said on Wednesday, during a working visit close to the war’s front lines.
Shoigu, savagely criticized by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin until the latter was killed in a plane crash in August, has been shown several times this month in televised clips designed to project confidence about the state of Russia’s war inside Ukraine.
He told assembled servicemen that their efforts were giving Ukrainian forces “fewer and fewer opportunities”.
Ukraine in June undertook a counteroffensive, capturing villages in the east and south, but at a much slower pace than its rapid advance through the northeast a year ago. Ukraine says Russian forces in recent days have been pounding the eastern city of Avdiivka but have sustained heavy losses.
Video footage published by the ministry showed Shoigu disembarking from a helicopter before engaging in discussions with senior military personnel.
Shoigu was informed of Russian troops’ training improvements with drones, the ministry said. He stressed that commanders should ensure that troops have new winter uniforms and insulated footwear as colder weather sets in.