Downed Ukrainian drone caused brief fire at Russian nuclear power plant

A fire broke out at a Russian nuclear power plant on Sunday after the country's military shot down a Ukrainian drone, the facility said after the fire was extinguished.

"An unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UAV) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was shot down by air defense systems in the area of the Kursk NPP," the station's press service said in a statement on the Telegram messenger.

"Upon impact, the drone exploded, damaging the auxiliary transformer."

The press service added that there were no injuries, but as a result of the detonation, the power of the third power unit of the plant decreased to 50%. The destroyed drone also caused a fire, which has now been extinguished, the press service clarified.

"The radiation background at the Kursk NPP industrial site and the adjacent territory has not changed and corresponds to the natural background," the press service reported.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned about the dangers of hostilities near nuclear power plants after Russia launched a military offensive against Ukraine in February 2022.

The plant is located near the Russian-Ukrainian border, west of the city of Kursk, a regional center with a population of about 440,000 people.

There has been no immediate comment from Ukraine. Kyiv has said its strikes on Russian territory are a response to Russia's ongoing attacks on Ukraine and are aimed at destroying infrastructure considered critical to Moscow's joint military efforts.

This attack appears to be part of a nightly wave of Ukrainian drone attacks, some of which target Russian energy infrastructure. Russia has been continuously attacking Ukraine's energy system since its full-scale invasion in 2022.

About 10 Ukrainian drones were shot down over the port of Ust-Luga in the Leningrad region of northern Russia, and their debris sparked a fire at a terminal owned by Novatek, a huge terminal and processing complex for exporting fuel to the Baltic Sea, the region's governor said.

"Currently, fire and emergency services are working to extinguish the fire," Alexander Drozdenko, the governor of the Leningrad region, where the port of Ust-Luga is located, said on Telegram. He added that there were no injuries.

According to Novatek, the complex in Ust-Luga, opened in 2013, processes gas condensate into light and heavy oil, jet fuel, fuel oil, and gas oil and allows the company to supply petroleum products and gas condensate to international markets.

The Ministry of Defense reported that overnight, Russian units destroyed 95 Ukrainian drones over 13 regions, including Leningrad and Samara, as well as the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia.