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 has 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 nuclear accident – have not increased, according to the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which said the strike did not breach the plant's inner containment shell.
The incident came as leaders gathered at the Munich Security Conference to discuss the war in Ukraine.
Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, accused Ukraine’s president Volodymr Zelensky of orchestrating the attack to coincide with the Munich event as part of a lobbying effort to secure more weapons and money from the West.
Fighting around nuclear power plants has repeatedly raised fears of a nuclear catastrophe during three years of war, particularly in a country where many vividly remember the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, which killed at least 30 people and 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.
Chernobyl's last working reactor shut in 2000. Early in its invasion of Ukraine, Russia occupied the plant and the surrounding area for more than a month as it attempted to capture Kyiv.
Friday’s drone struck the radiation shelter, causing a fire that was then extinguished, Zelensky wrote on Telegram. “According to initial assessments, the damage to the shelter is significant,” he said.
The strike came two days after President Donald Trump upended US policy on Ukraine, saying he would meet Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war.
It also came as Ukraine is being slowly pushed back by Russia's larger army along parts of the 600-mile front line, and is desperately seeking more Western help.
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 36,000 tonnes and is so tall Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral could fit inside it.
There was "no immediate danger" to the facility or risk of radioactive leaks, according to Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Kyiv-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
“The protective structure is strong and reliable, though it has been damaged,” he told the Associated Press.
Ukraine's SBU security service showed pictures of what it said was the drone, which it said had been carrying a high-explosive warhead. It said the drone was a Geran-2, the Russian name for the Iranian-designed Shahed-136, and had been intended to hit the reactor enclosure.
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,” he said.
It was not possible to independently confirm who was behind the strike. The sides frequently trade blame when nuclear sites come under attack.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said the strike and the recent increase in military activity near Zaporizhzhia “underline persistent nuclear safety risks”, adding that the IAEA remains “on high alert”.
In his Telegram post, Zelensky added: “The only state in the world that can attack such facilities, occupy the territory of nuclear power plants, and conduct hostilities without any regard for the consequences is today's Russia. And this is a terrorist threat to the entire world. Russia must be held accountable for what it is doing.”
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
