Ukrainian drone kills chief engineer of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant

The chief engineer of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Alexander Yakovlev, and his driver were killed in a Ukrainian drone strike — this was reported by the Russian state corporation Rosatom.

Rosatom head Alexei Likhachev said a Ukrainian drone struck a company vehicle traveling between the plant and the nearby city of Enerhodar. According to the Anadolu agency, Likhachev described the attack as “targeted.” Reuters also reported details of the incident citing the head of the state corporation. The strike was the deadliest single incident targeting the plant’s senior staff since Russia seized Europe’s largest nuclear facility in March 2022.

Yakovlev’s death came amid a series of escalating drone attacks on nuclear plant personnel. On June 5, a Ukrainian drone wounded at least three Rosatom engineers who were demining the area near the plant on the first day of an IAEA-mediated ceasefire aimed at restoring external power supply. On June 17, another plant worker was killed in a drone strike on Enerhodar. In early July, Rosatom stated that Ukraine had carried out more than 460 drone strikes on the facility and its surroundings.

The strike on the chief engineer occurred against the backdrop of a large-scale Ukrainian drone campaign targeting energy infrastructure in occupied territories. Since July 1, Ukraine’s drone forces have attacked more than 50 energy facilities on the occupied Crimean Peninsula and in southern regions, causing widespread power outages and water shortages.

On July 8, Ukrainian forces struck the main receiving point of the Kuban–Crimea energy bridge, the primary route for electricity supplies from Russian territory to the peninsula. The commander of Ukraine’s drone forces, known by the name Brovdi, said his units also hit five transformer substations, a training range, and three radar stations in a single night. By mid-July, large parts of Crimea had experienced multi-day power disruptions, and Kremlin-installed authorities were forced to set up emergency assistance centers for the population.

Ukrainian forces also claimed strikes against 116 vessels in the Sea of Azov over a nine-day period, targeting Russia’s “shadow fleet” in order to disrupt military supply routes. Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War noted that Ukrainian forces continue to intensify strikes aimed at disrupting Russian logistics operations in Crimea.

Russia has not announced any retaliatory measures directly linked to Yakovlev’s death, although President Vladimir Putin has promised a “powerful retaliatory strike” in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian-controlled territories.