A driver at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine was killed on Wednesday after two days of drone attacks, the plant's management said, in a statement reported by Reuters.

Source: Reuters

The plant's managers said in a post on Telegram that buses carrying staff to and from the plant had come under attack for two days in a row. "The second straight day of attacks on the station's transport shows that these strikes are deliberate," the statement said, adding that the attacks "pose a direct threat" to the staff who keep the plant operating. The managers attributed the attacks to Ukrainian drones; that attribution is the plant management's claim and was not independently confirmed in the reporting.

Russian forces seized the station — Europe's largest nuclear plant, with six reactors — in the first weeks of the February 2022 invasion. Each side has since repeatedly accused the other of military activity liable to jeopardise nuclear safety around the plant, Reuters reported.

A repeated pattern of claims around the plant

Russia has in recent months accused Ukraine of attacking sites and services associated with the plant, including its transport. Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear corporation, said a Ukrainian drone attack on a service car in July killed the plant's chief engineer and the vehicle's driver, according to Reuters. The city of Enerhodar, where most of the station's staff live, has also been a frequent target, the agency said.

Rosatom said last week that a truce agreement, mediated by the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, was in place to allow repairs at a thermal power station that supplies power to the nuclear plant.