A fire broke out Sunday at a Russian nuclear power plant after the country's military downed a Ukrainian drone, the facility said after the blaze was put out.
The “device detonated” upon impact at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in western Russia, sparking a blaze which the facility said “was extinguished by fire crews.”
There were no casualties from the drone smashing down at the site, where capacity was reduced.
“The radiation background at the industrial site of the Kursk NPP and the surrounding area has not changed and corresponds to natural levels,” the plant wrote on Telegram.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned of the dangers of fighting around nuclear plants following Russia launching its military offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.
The plant is near the Russia-Ukraine border and sits to the west of Kursk city, the region's capital with a population of around 440,000.
Russian authorities said Ukrainian drones had also been shot down over areas sometimes far from the front, including St. Petersburg in the northwest.
Ten drones were shot down over the port of Ust-Luga on the Gulf of Finland, sparking a fire at a fuel terminal owned by Russian energy group Novatek, regional governor Alexander Drozdenko wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine's smaller, outgunned army has relied heavily on drones to respond to Russia's invasion, notably targeting oil infrastructure to hit a key source of Moscow's revenues to fund the war.
Russia has seen soaring fuel prices since the attacks began.
Ukraine meanwhile said Russia had attacked it overnight with a ballistic missile and 72 Iranian-made Shahed attack drones, 48 of which the air force said had been shot down.
A Russian drone strike killed a 47-year-old woman in the eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk, the governor said.
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