“We are getting dangerously close to a nuclear accident” in Zaporizhia, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned on Monday, stressing that it is practically “impossible” to verify who was responsible for the recent attacks against the Ukrainian nuclear power plant.

The installation in Zaporizhia (south), which has remained in the hands of the Russian armed forces since March 2022, has been the subject of a series of one-way drone attacks since April 7, with Moscow and Kiev blaming each other.

Asked by reporters who was responsible for these recent attacks, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that “in this case it is simply impossible” to determine which side was responsible.

Because the attacks were carried out with drones, which can change course and the specific ones could have been acquired from “anywhere”.

“So we don’t have the scientific evidence to say without doubt what came from where,” he insisted.

Wherever they came from, these “reckless attacks”, the first to directly target Europe’s largest nuclear power plant since November 2022, must “stop immediately”, Mr Grossi stressed during a Council meeting UN Security Council dedicated to the issue.

“Although, fortunately, they did not cause a radiological event this time, they greatly increase the risk at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, where nuclear safety was already exposed,” added the IAEA director general, who deployed experts in the field.

They are also setting a “dangerous precedent, as they successfully targeted the reactor casing” (p.s.: of No. 6), he added.

“Let me put it simply. Two years of war took a heavy toll on the safety of the Zaporizhia nuclear plant. Each of the IAEA’s seven pillars of nuclear safety and security has been called into question. We cannot stand idly by as the tide tilts,” he warned.

“We are dangerously close to a nuclear accident,” he insisted, calling for no complacency and to let “a roll of the dice decide what happens tomorrow.”

Although all six reactors are in a “cold shutdown” state, he added, “the risk of a major nuclear accident remains very real.”