Russia says Ukrainian drone kills chief engineer at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

MOSCOW, July 15 - The chief engineer at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been killed by a Ukrainian drone near the station, the head of Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom said on Wednesday.

Alexei Likhachev said in a statement that a Ukrainian drone had struck a service car between the plant's site and the town of Enerhodar, killing the engineer, Alexander Yakovlev, and the driver.

Russian forces seized the plant in southeastern Ukraine, Europe's largest with six reactors, in the first weeks of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Each side has since regularly accused the other of military actions that endanger nuclear safety.

The city of Enerhodar, where most of the nuclear station's staff live, has been a frequent target of attacks.

Likhachev said the failure of Western countries to react to attacks on the plant "encourages escalation of terrorist acts by the Ukrainian government," adding that attacks on the area had killed 13 people and injured 48 over the past 2 1/2 months.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, condemned the incident, while making no specific mention of Ukraine or Russia.

Grossi said it "represents an unacceptable attack on the plant and its management, seriously threatening nuclear safety."

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, writing on Telegram, said: "This is a crime of the Kyiv regime that Grossi must finally see — we demand a clear statement condemning this killing from the relevant international bodies, first and foremost the IAEA."

The Kremlin last Friday accused Ukraine of escalating what it called "terror" actions against the power station. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Ukraine of carrying out strikes against civilian infrastructure and against infrastructure directly related to the plant.

There was no immediate comment on the latest incident from Ukraine. REUTERS