VIENNA, July 5. /TASS/. The strike at the Raduga substation of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) has been the first deliberate attack by the Ukrainian military on the nuke plant’s personnel, Russia’s Permanent Representative at International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov told TASS on Friday.

"On July 3, 2024, the Kiev regime delivered another strike at the Raduga substation situated in Energodar where repair work was underway to optimize the scheme of supplying electric power to the ZNPP’s satellite town. Three strikes by kamikaze drones were delivered at the facility. As a result, eight ZNPP employees were injured. This has been the first case when the station’s staff has been deliberately attacked," the Russian envoy said.

It is not for the first time that the Kiev regime "clearly demonstrates its complete disregard for the safety of peaceful nuclear facilities," which manifests itself in the "stubborn creation of threats to the fulfillment by the ZNPP personnel of their duties and in the attempts to exert external pressure on decisions made by the station’s staff," Ulyanov said.

"To all appearances, Ukraine does not intend to give up its policy of intimidating the ZNPP personnel," the envoy said.

Russia is doing everything necessary to ensure that people living in Energodar are not in need of anything and are protected from "criminal Ukrainian provocations" and is creating proper conditions for the work of the station’s personnel and their families, restoring infrastructure and taking efforts to raise social and economic standards of living, he stressed.

Head of Russia’s Rosatom civilian nuclear power corporation Alexey Likhachyov said earlier that on the morning of July 3 the Ukrainian military had attacked the Raduga substation making part of the ZNPP energy infrastructure by unmanned aerial vehicles three times. As he specified, repair work was in progress at the Raduga substation at that time and eight employees were injured in the attacks.