IAEA reported drone strike near Zaporizhzhia NPP killed driver

On the morning of April 27, a driver was killed in a drone attack in a transport workshop near the site of the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP.

This was reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

They did not specify the origin of the drone, but promised to investigate the incident and monitor the situation.

IAEA also noted that strikes on or near nuclear power plants should not occur because they could threaten nuclear safety.

Whatʼs happening with the Zaporizhzhia NPP now?

The Russians occupied the Zaporizhzhia NPP in early March 2022 and have been operating under their control since then. An IAEA mission has been at the station since September 2022. Ukraine insists on the withdrawal of the Russian occupiers from the station. Russia refuses to create a demilitarized zone at the Zaporizhzhia NPP.

The Zaporizhzhia NPP repeatedly lost external power supply due to hostilities near the station. In such cases, it switched to backup diesel generators. In total, since the beginning of the full-scale war, the Zaporizhzhia NPP has experienced 13 blackouts — the last one was on April 14.

The longest was the tenth blackout, which occurred due to Russian shelling and lasted a month — from September 23 to October 23, 2025.

The issue of the Zaporizhzhia NPP remains among the key ones in the trilateral negotiations between Ukraine, the United States and Russia. In January, Politico, citing sources, wrote that Russia proposed during the negotiations to share the electricity from the Zaporizhzhia NPP between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. President Volodymyr Zelensky has already stated that such an idea looks unrealistic. Instead, he proposed that the Zaporizhzhia NPP be operated by Ukraine and the United States.

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