Video shows a Russian missile striking less than 1,000 feet from a large Ukrainian nuclear plant, Ukraine's military says

• Ukraine said a Russian missile strike landed less than 1,000 feet from a nuclear power plant on Monday.
• The facility was the country's second-largest plant, the defense ministry said.

A Russian missile landed less than 1,000 feet from Ukraine's second-largest nuclear power plant, the country's military and state energy operator said on Monday.

Ukraine's defense ministry shared a video of security footage near the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant, in the country's southern Mykolaiv region, with a timestamp of 12:19 a.m. local time.

The black-and-white video appeared to show the moment the purported Russian missile struck, illuminating a dark scene with a fireball that was immediately followed by a larger second fireball.

"A missile fell 300 meters from the plant," Ukraine's defense ministry said, adding that the Kremlin's "nuclear terrorism continues" and arguing that Russia "is the threat to the whole world."

Energoatom, Ukraine's state nuclear operator, blamed the attack on "Russian terrorists" and said the strike landed close to the plant's reactors.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a top nuclear watchdog, said later on Monday that "shelling" rather than a missile strike caused the explosion, which damaged windows at the nuclear facility and impacted three power lines.

It said the power lines impacted were not those that connected the nuclear facility to the power grid, and cited Energoatom's reporting that there were no injuries to its staff and that the plant's three reactors continued to operate.

An senior US military official told reporters Monday afternoon that the strike hit a power station near the plant and caused some damage, according to Voice of America journalist Carla Babb.

Russia began its assault on Ukraine through the contaminated zone of Chernobyl, with significant fighting repeatedly taking place near nuclear power plants despite a chorus of international condemnation. Fighting near the country's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — which is the largest in Europe and has been occupied by Russian forces since March — has, for instance, repeatedly raised alarms at watchdog agencies like the IAEA.

International inspectors have said that reckless shelling could trigger a nuclear disaster and have urged hostilities to cease.

"While we have recently focused on the urgent need for action to prevent a nuclear accident at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant — establishing an IAEA presence there earlier this month — today's explosion near the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant all too clearly demonstrates the potential dangers also at other nuclear facilities in the country," IAEA Director Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement. "Any military action that threatens nuclear safety and security is unacceptable and must stop immediately."

Monday's strike near the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant comes after Western intelligence warned that Russian forces are increasingly targeting civilian infrastructure as President Vladimir Putin's forces continue suffer major battlefield defeats in the face of successful Ukrainian counteroffensive moves.

Last week, for example, Russian forces fired a volley of missiles at a local hydraulic structure in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown — in what officials said was "revenge" for Ukraine's punishing military advances.

In areas from which Russian forces recently retreated, Ukrainian troops have discovered mass graves and other evidence of wartime atrocities reminiscent of scenes from the Kyiv suburbs that were liberated from Russian occupation during the spring.