MOSCOW, February 16. /TASS/. The Kiev regime displayed total disregard to the issue of safe operation of civilian nuclear facilities by attacking Energodar on February 14, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"The Kiev regime continues its dangerous provocations against the Zaporozhye NPP and its satellite city of Energodar, where power plant personnel and their families live," the Ministry said. "Between 6:00 and 6:40 p.m. [Moscow time, 3:00 and 3:30 p.m. GMT] on February 14, the Ukrainian armed forces carried out an attack on the city of Energodar with strike drones."

"The Kiev regime once again displayed a total disregard to the issue of safe operation of civilian nuclear facilities, as well as its intent to achieve its criminal goals by any means necessary, including by creating threats to the lives and health of the ZNPP personnel," the Ministry underscored.

The ministry expressed hope for a response on the part of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which would "unequivocally point at Kiev as the only source of threat to the reliable functioning of ZNPP."

Earlier, Vladimir Rogov, chairman of the We Are Together with Russia movement, wrote on his Telegram channel about two explosions caused by a Ukrainian drone attack on the city of Energodar, located near the ZNPP. Rogov said that the city administration building was damaged in the dual drone strike.

Located in Energodar, the Zaporozhye nuclear facility, with roughly 6GW of capacity, is the largest of its kind in Europe. Russia took control of the plant on February 28, 2022, in the first days of its special military operation in Ukraine. Since then, units of the Ukrainian army have periodically shelled both residential districts in nearby Energodar as well as the premises of the nuclear plant itself, by means of drones, heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems.