The IAEA team based at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) today examined the area near the plant's training centre where a drone was reportedly shot down and crashed, once again underlining potential risks to nuclear safety during the military conflict, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said.
The IAEA requested access to the purported crash site after receiving information from the ZNPP that the incident had occurred on Wednesday afternoon, local time. The crash sparked a fire that ignited surrounding vegetation but caused no casualties nor structural damage to the training centre itself, which is located just outside the site perimeter, the ZNPP added.
At the impact site, the IAEA team observed white ash covering a small area and was shown what the ZNPP identified as the remains of a drone, including four small electric motors still lying on the ground. Plastic fragments, apparently parts of the body of a drone, were also visible.
The latest incident came a few months after a similar report about a drone incident near the same training centre for the ZNPP. In February 2025, a drone attack caused significant damage to the New Safe Confinement structure at the Chornobyl site in northern Ukraine. There are also frequent reports of drones detected near Ukraine's other nuclear sites.
"Any attempt to target a nuclear site with drones can have serious consequences. Whilst offensive drones may be relatively small, they can have serious implications for nuclear safety, for example by causing fires or structural damage. I continue to call for utmost military restraint near all nuclear facilities," Director General Grossi said.
