The head of Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom, Alexei Likhachev, accused Ukraine of killing a key worker in a drone strike near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on June 17 in Enerhodar, southeastern Ukraine, where most plant employees live [1, 2, 3, 4].
One worker employed at the plant’s central repair workshop was killed and another seriously injured in the attack. Four people were injured in total, including the two plant employees from the repair workshop [1, 2, 3, 4].
Russia has controlled the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant since early 2022 after its forces entered Ukraine [1, 2, 3, 4]. Both Russia and Ukraine regularly accuse each other of military actions that risk the plant’s safety [1, 2, 3, 4].
Likhachev described the targeted attacks against plant workers as deliberate and dangerous to nuclear safety. He said, "This is the plant's core personnel, on whom the safe operation of equipment at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant directly depends" [1].
He added that "Ukraine switched to the targeted and systematic killing of employees of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant," calling the worker deaths "a double tragedy" affecting those "directly responsible for nuclear safety and the stable operation of the facility" [3].
In April 2026, Russia reported that a previous Ukrainian drone attack killed another Zaporizhzhia plant worker [1, 2, 4].
Ukraine has not issued any immediate response to the recent accusations [1, 2, 3, 4].
