(Reuters) – A Ukrainian drone has crashed near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Russia’s RIA news agency cited a Russian officer as saying on Wednesday, as the chief of the global nuclear watchdog was expected in Russia for talks on the plant’s security.
International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi was due to travel to Russia’s Kaliningrad region on Wednesday, a week after visiting the Zaporizhzhia facility in southern Ukraine, which is controlled by Russian forces.
According to the Russian military officer cited by RIA, a Polish-made drone weighing more than 2 kg (4.4 pounds) had crashed near the plant. The news agency did not say when.
Grossi has been pushing for a demilitarised zone around Europe’s largest nuclear facility, which has come under repeated shelling, with Russia and Ukraine have blamed on each other.
(Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Robert Birsel)
