A drone armed with a warhead hit the protective outer shell of Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear plant early on Friday, punching a hole in the structure and briefly starting a fire, in an attack Kyiv blamed on Russia.
The Kremlin denied it was responsible.
Radiation levels at the shuttered plant in the Kyiv region — site of the world’s worst civilian nuclear incident — have not increased, the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said, adding that the strike did not breach the plant’s inner containment shell.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The IAEA did not attribute blame, saying only that its team stationed at the site heard an explosion and was informed that a drone had struck the shell.
Fighting around nuclear plants has repeatedly raised fears of a catastrophe during three years of war, particularly in a country where many vividly remember the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, which spewed radioactive fallout over much of the northern hemisphere.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is Europe’s biggest, has occasionally been hit by drones during the war without causing significant damage.
The strike came two days after US President Donald Trump upended Washington’s policy on Ukraine, saying he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war. The move seemed to identify Putin as the only player that matters and looked set to sideline Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as well as European governments, in any peace talks.
The hit on Chernobyl occurred as Ukraine is being slowly pushed back by Russia’s bigger army along parts of the 1,000km front line and is desperately seeking more Western help.
Zelenskiy said a Russian drone with a high-explosive warhead hit the plant’s outer shell and started a fire, which has been put out. The shell was built in 2016 over another heavy concrete containment structure, which was placed on the plant’s fourth reactor soon after the 1986 disaster. Both shells seek to prevent radiation leaks.
The Ukrainian Emergency Service provided a photograph that showed a hole in the roof of the outer shield, which is a massive steel-and-concrete structure weighing about 40,000 tonnes and tall enough to fit Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral inside.
There was “no immediate danger” to the facility or risk of radioactive leaks, said Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Kyiv-based Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
“The protective structure is strong and reliable, though it has been damaged,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russia was responsible.
“There is no talk about strikes on nuclear infrastructure, nuclear energy facilities. Any such claim isn’t true. Our military doesn’t do that,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
It was not possible to independently confirm who was behind the strike. Both sides frequently trade blame when nuclear sites come under attack.
In Munich, Germany, Zelenskiy told reporters that he thinks the blow against Chernobyl was a “very clear greeting from Putin and Russian Federation” to the conference.
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