Ukraine carried out a large-scale drone attack on Russia on August 24, triggering a sharp drop in output at one of the country’s biggest nuclear power plants and igniting a major fire at the Ust-Luga fuel export terminal, according to Russian officials.
The Kursk nuclear power plant, located about 60 kilometers (38 miles) from the Ukrainian border, reported that the drone that caused the fire was shot down near the facility shortly after midnight local time. The blast damaged an auxiliary transformer and forced reactor number 3 to reduce operations by 50%.
Plant authorities said radiation levels remained normal and no one was injured in the fire. Two other reactors at the site are offline, while a fourth is undergoing scheduled maintenance.
The strike came on the the day Ukraine marked its 1991 independence from the Soviet Union—a reminder of the country’s long struggle for sovereignty amid repeated clashes with Moscow. That struggle escalated sharply in 2014, when conflict broke out in eastern Ukraine following Russia’s annexation of Crimea. After greater cooperation with the United States and NATO member states, intelligence was gathered showing that Russia was preparing an escalation amounting to a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In February 2022, the largest deployment of Russian troops moved toward the borderlands. Despite the evidence, Ukrainian officials played down the possibility of an “unprovoked” attack. But the war did, in fact, begin just a few weeks later.
Want to learn more shocking facts and figures about the Russia-Ukraine war? Click through this gallery.