By SCM Foreign Affairs Writer
VIENNA — The chief engineer of Europe’s largest nuclear facility, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, was killed on Wednesday in a drone strike near the facility, according to Russian officials.
The attack has triggered immediate, sharp condemnation from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, which warned that targeting the plant’s management posed a critical danger to international nuclear safety.
Rafael M. Grossi, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), issued a stern statement condemning the strike. He called the incident an “unacceptable attack on the plant and its management, seriously threatening nuclear safety”.
While the IAEA’s statement did not explicitly assign blame for the strike, Russian authorities immediately accused the Ukrainian military of executing a targeted assassination.
The victim, Alexander Yakovlev, was appointed chief engineer by Russian authorities after Moscow’s forces seized control of the plant in the spring of 2022.
According to Alexey Likhachev, the head of Russia’s state-run nuclear energy corporation, Rosatom, the drone struck a company vehicle—a Toyota Camry—as it traveled between the industrial perimeter of the plant and the neighboring city of Enerhodar, where much of the plant’s workforce resides.
The strike killed both Mr. Yakovlev and his driver, Dmitry Filippov.
”This was a targeted strike on a civilian service vehicle,” Mr. Likhachev said in a statement, labeling the event a “terrorist act”.
Rosatom officials asserted that the incident is part of a broader, escalating pattern of Ukrainian military actions threatening the facility and its personnel.
Ukraine’s military and government have not yet officially commented on the strike. In the past, Kyiv has consistently accused Russian forces of militarizing the plant, using it as a shield to launch artillery, and staging “false flag” operations to blame Ukrainian forces.
The death of Mr. Yakovlev has reignited a fierce diplomatic battle over the facility. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova fiercely criticized international bodies, urging the IAEA to look directly at Kyiv.
”This is a crime of the Kyiv regime that Grossi must finally see,” Ms. Zakharova wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “We demand a clear statement condemning this killing.”
By Wednesday afternoon, Director General Grossi issued his response, reinforcing the IAEA’s long-standing plea to keep nuclear personnel out of the crosshairs of the conflict.
”The IAEA calls for an immediate end to all attacks on or near nuclear sites and their staff,” Mr. Grossi said. He emphasized that the safety of the plant depends entirely on the stability and security of the technical experts who run it daily.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, located in southeastern Ukraine, features six Soviet-designed light-water reactors and is a vital piece of European energy infrastructure. Russian forces captured the plant during the initial weeks of the February 2022 invasion.
Since then, the facility has been operated by Ukrainian staff working under the oversight of Russian military units and Rosatom engineers.
The plant has been in “cold shutdown” for many months to minimize the risk of a catastrophic meltdown, but it still requires a continuous supply of electricity and a highly skilled workforce to maintain its critical cooling systems. Over the last four years, the facility has repeatedly lost external power due to shelling, forcing it to rely on emergency diesel generators and raising global anxieties of a nuclear disaster.
According to databases tracking Ukrainian collaborators, Mr. Yakovlev had worked at the Zaporizhzhia plant since 2008, starting as a pump operator and rising through the ranks to deputy chief engineer before cooperating with Russian forces to take the top engineering role after the occupation.
His death represents the highest-profile casualty among the plant’s senior management since the war began.