Ukraine war: Russians likely targeted Khmelnytsky nuclear plant - Zelensky

A Russian drone attack on western Ukraine likely targeted a nuclear power plant, President Volodymyr Zelensky says.

Iranian-designed Shahed drones struck the area around the power plant in the western Khmelnytsky region early on Wednesday, he said.

The attack injured 20 people and caused light damage, including broken windows.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the plant's operations were unaffected.

"Powerful explosions shook an area near Ukraine's Khmelnytsky Nuclear Power Plant," IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement. The blasts highlight "the dangers to nuclear safety" posed by the war, he added.

The Khmelnytsky plant has two reactors. One is operating and one has been in planned outage since August.

Fears of fighting affecting a nuclear power plant have been omnipresent since Russia first invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian forces have controlled the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, in eastern Ukraine, since March 2022.

Kyiv accuses Russia of shelling the plant and risking a radiation leak, behaviour it characterises as "nuclear terror". No serious accident has occurred since the full-scale invasion last year, however.

Mr Zelensky said the attack in the Khmelnytsky region showed that Ukraine's air defences needed further support from international partners.

He added that Russian drones and missiles contained components originating from Western companies and countries and the Khmelnytsky strike showed "how dangerous it can be when Russia can bypass international sanctions".

On Tuesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a €1.4bn ($1.5bn; £1.2bn) aid package for Ukraine.

The new aid will include missile defence systems with the aim of creating a "protective shield" around Ukrainian infrastructure, given Russian plans "to use the cold and energy shortages as weapons against the civilian population", he said.

Separately, Ukrainian intelligence claimed on Thursday that a car carrying four members of Russia's FSB security service was blown up in Berdyansk, in the Zaporizhzhia region. According to Russian media, at least one person was killed by an apparent improvised explosive device.

The reported bombing is the latest in a string of attacks targeting Russian officials and collaborators in occupied Ukraine.

In September, Vladimir Malov, a member of Russian President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party in the Kherson region, was killed when his car was blown up in an apparent assassination.