A Ukrainian drone struck the cooling tower of the Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant in Russia’s Voronezh region, which borders Ukraine, Russia’s state nuclear energy company Rosenergoatom said.
In a statement on Tuesday, October 7, Rosenergoatom said the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was intercepted by electronic warfare systems before colliding with the cooling tower of Unit 6, one of the plant’s active reactors.
The agency added that the drone was detonated after crashing into a cooling tower at the Novovoronezh plant.
“A combat drone of the Armed Forces of Ukraine attempted to attack the cooling tower of the Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant on the night of October 6 to 7. A combat UAV of the Ukrainian armed forces was suppressed by technical means,” read the statement in part.
“As a result, after colliding with the tower cooling tower of the operating power unit No. 6 of the Novovoronezh NPP, the UAV detonated.”
Ukrainian Drone Hits Russia Nuclear Power Plant Cooling Tower
Rosenergoatom said there were no damages or casualties following the drone strike, although a dark mark remained on the cooling tower from the detonation.
The company assured that the plant’s operations remain safe, noting that radiation levels at the facility and surrounding areas have not changed and remain within natural background limits.
Law enforcement agencies have been deployed to the scene to investigate the incident.
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Rosenergoatom stated that the incident did not impact the plant’s operations, with power units No. 4, 5, and 6 currently operating normally.
Unit 7 has been under scheduled preventive maintenance since October 4, and the plant’s total output capacity stands at 2,556 megawatts (MW).
“This is another act of aggression by the Armed Forces of Ukraine against Russian nuclear power plants. Previously, there were attempts to strike the main facilities of the Kursk and Smolensk NPPs,” the company added.
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Moscow has previously accused Kyiv of attacking nuclear power stations in the Kursk and Smolensk regions of western Russia.
Ukraine, in turn, has accused Russia of deliberately creating radiation risks at nuclear power stations located on Ukrainian territory.
This comes after Ukraine launched a drone attack on Russia in August this year, which forced a sharp reduction in the capacity of a reactor at one of Russia’s largest nuclear power plants and sparked a major fire at the Ust-Luga fuel export terminal.
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Russia’s defense ministry said that on August 24—Ukraine’s Independence Day, marking its 1991 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union—at least 95 Ukrainian drones were intercepted across more than a dozen Russian regions.
The Kursk nuclear power plant, located just 60 km (38 miles) from the Ukrainian border, reported that its air defenses shot down a drone that detonated near the plant shortly after midnight, damaging an auxiliary transformer and reducing the operating capacity of reactor No. 3 by 50%.
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