Over 500 Russian missiles and drones recorded near Ukrainian nuclear plants in 2025, energy minister says
Svitlana Hrynchuk, Minister of Energy of Ukraine (photo: Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
Since the beginning of 2025, Russian drones and missiles have often flown past Ukrainian nuclear power plants. Nuclear blackmail by Moscow must stop, said Svitlana Hrynchuk, Minister of Energy of Ukraine, according to the press service of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine.
Hrynchuk, during her speech at the 69th Regular Session of the IAEA General Conference in Vienna, stated that the Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is "an act of nuclear piracy that threatens not only Ukraine, but the whole world."
"It is necessary to guarantee full access for IAEA experts to all areas of the plant and to create an international mechanism of control over the Zaporizhzhia NPP for its demilitarization and return under the sovereign control of Ukraine," she added.
The minister clarified that the Zaporizhzhia NPP is currently operating under conditions of a beyond-design-basis threat. In particular, the main source of water supply for cooling the reactors has been destroyed. The plant has completely lost power supply nine times. As of now, due to Russian attacks, only one out of ten power transmission lines continues to operate.
"Any attempts by Russia to introduce new, unknown control systems at the plant must be regarded as using the Zaporizhzhia NPP as a military tool and a deliberate escalation of the nuclear safety threat," the minister stressed.
She noted that since the beginning of the year, more than half a thousand flights of Russian missiles and drones have been recorded in 30-kilometer observation zones around Ukrainian nuclear power plants. Also, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, due to Russian strikes, Ukrainian NPPs have lost external power supply 13 times.
"The world cannot tolerate nuclear blackmail. We call on all IAEA member states to unite, to give a decisive and coordinated response, confirming that peace, security, and international law must prevail without exception. Nuclear energy must never be turned into a weapon of war," she added.
Russian drones and missiles near Ukrainian NPPs
On September 10, the International Atomic Energy Agency recorded nine drones near the Khmelnytskyi NPP.
That same night, 13 Russian attack drones flew near the Rivne NPP.
