Russia accuses Ukraine of attacking a nuclear power plant 500 kilometers from Moscow

A Ukrainian drone attempted to attack the facilities of the Novovoronezh nuclear power plant, 500 kilometers south of Moscow, but impacted a cooling tower after being shot down by Russian air defenses, according to authorities in this country. “At the Novovorónezh nuclear power plant, a drone from the Ukrainian Armed Forces was suppressed by technical means. After impacting a cooling tower of the plant’s sixth reactor, the drone detonated,” Rosenergoatom, the energy division of the Russian nuclear agency, reported on Telegram. As a result of the incident, which occurred early this Tuesday morning, “there were no damages or victims; however, a dark mark remained on the cooling tower as a result of the detonation,” added this organization. Photos of the mark left by the drone on the surface of the tower have been published on Russian and Ukrainian social media. According to Rosenergoatom, there are currently no changes in the radiation background in the area, which remains at normal levels. The impact did not affect the work of the nuclear plant, where three reactors are operating, including the sixth, while the seventh was still under repair. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of playing a “dangerous game” by attacking the infrastructure of the Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, controlled since last March by Russian forces, and other nuclear facilities on Russian territory.

You may be interested in: Europe innovates too slowly to have a “significant” green transition, according to ESG expert

In turn, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again accused Russia of bombing this power plant, something that Putin called “nonsense”.

Last August, Russia also denounced a Ukrainian drone attack on the nuclear power plant in the border region of Kursk, where one of these devices hit an auxiliary transformer and forced one of its reactors to be unloaded by 50%.