Fire seen at Ukrainian nuclear power plant as 15 injured in Kursk drone strike

Radiation levels were normal, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said, although the blaze is visible from Ukrainian-held territory

Smoke billows from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Sunday (Ukrainian Presidential Press)

Russian forces lit a fire at the site of the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

Radiation levels were normal, the president said, although the blaze is visible from Ukrainian-held territory.

A local official in the Ukrainian city of Nikopol said that Russian forces were rumoured to have set fire to a large number of tyres in the cooling towers, Reuters reported. Russia claimed the fire was started by nearby shelling.

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog, which has a team at the vast six-reactor plant, said its experts had seen strong, dark smoke coming from the northern area of the plant following multiple explosions.

The IAEA said there had been no reported impact on nuclear safety at the site. “Team was told by [the nuclear plant] of an alleged drone attack today on one of the cooling towers located at the site,” it wrote on X.

Mr Zelensky published video showing belching black smoke that appeared to be coming out a cooling tower with a blaze burning at its foot.

“Currently, the radiation indicators are normal. But as long as Russian terrorists retain control over the nuclear plant, the situation is not and cannot be normal,” he said.

The reactors at the plant located close to the front line of the war in Ukraine are not generating power but the facility relies on external power to keep its nuclear material cool and prevent a catastrophic meltdown.

It comes as at least 15 people have been injured in a Ukrainian drone and missile attack on Russia’s Kursk region, Moscow said.

Russia’s defence ministry said troops had destroyed 14 Ukraine-launched drones and four Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles this morning.

People were injured after debris from a destroyed Ukrainian missile fell onto a nine-storey residential building, it claimed.

It comes as Mr Zelensky has for the first time confirmed his forces are engaged in a major cross-border offensive into Russia’s Kursk region.

“Ukraine is proving that it truly knows how to restore justice and applies the necessary pressure on the aggressor,” he said.

The Russian region’s authorities have rushed to evacuate 76,000 civilians from areas at risk as the fighting continued into a sixth day.

The attack represents Kyiv’s largest incursion into Russian territory since the start of the war, which left southwestern parts of Russia vulnerable before reinforcement started arriving. Russia has declared a state of emergency amid fierce fighting within its borders with Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry has claimed that 35 drones were shot down overnight over the Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod, Bryansk and Oryol regions.

Ukraine hasn’t commented on the Sunday drone attacks inside Russia. But they come as Ukraine has increased the pace of similar drone attacks largely targeting military infrastructure and oil depots in recent weeks.

Two days ago Mr Zelensky praised his army’s ability “to surprise” and “achieve results” as it battles Russian forces during an audacious cross-border attack into Russian territory.

Around 1,000 Ukrainian troops in tanks and armoured vehicles successfully broke through the Russian border and into the Kursk region in the early hours of Tuesday with air support from swarms of drones and pounding artillery, according to Russian officials. An angry Vladimir Putin has labelled the offensive a “major provocation”.

Ukrainian soldiers have now penetrated more than 10km (six miles) across the border, breaking through two Russian defensive lines and a stronghold, the Institute for the Study of War said. Some reports suggest that Kyiv’s forces are advancing towards a village 21km (13 miles) into Russian territory.

Heavy fighting has been reported near the town of Sudzha and some Russian bloggers, currently one of the most accurate sources of information, said Ukraine’s forces were pushing towards the Kursk nuclear power station, under 64km (40 miles) northeast of Sudzha.