Russia launched a drone attack on the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant overnight significantly damaging a radiation shelter, Ukraine has claimed, sparking fears of a deadly leak.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on X that a Russian attack drone ‘with a high-explosive warhead struck the shelter protecting the world from radiation at the destroyed 4th power unit of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant.’
He said the shelter was damaged but that the fire has since been extinguished. The cover is used to prevent radiation after the 1986 nuclear disaster which sent pollution across Europe.
Radiation levels around the plant have not increased this morning, he added, with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) continuing to monitor the plant.
The agency confirmed that an explosion was heard overnight from the new safe confinement, which protects the remains of reactor 4 of the former nuclear power plant, starting a fire.
It said that fire safety personnel responded within minutes, with no casualties reported, and added that radiation levels inside and outside ‘remain normal and stable.’
Zelensky said Russia is ‘the only country in the world that attacks such sites, occupies nuclear power plants, and wages war without any regard for the consequences,’ adding that it is ‘a terrorist threat to the entire world.’
His warning came after Donald Trump announced that representatives from Ukraine and Russia would meet along with US officials at a security conference in Munich today.
A Russian attack drone with a high-explosive warhead struck the shelter protecting the world from radiation at the destroyed 4th power unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
Pictures appear to show damage on the shelter of the destroyed power unit at the plant
Wreckage of the military drone that hit the wrecked Chernobyl reactor cover was shown but the type was not immediately clear
Videos shared by Ukraine appear to show an explosion at the plant
A Russian attack drone with a high-explosive warhead struck the shelter protecting the world from radiation at the destroyed 4th power unit of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant
Russia is not officially attending the conference and has not commented on Trump’s claims that talks would be held between the warring parties.
Meanwhile a senior Ukrainian official said ‘talks with Russians in Munich’ were ‘not expected’.
Zelensky is set to meet with US Vice President JD Vance Secretary of State Marco Rubio today.
He is expected to warn the US against trusting Putin after a bombshell phone call between Trump and Putin on Wednesday.
Trump said he had agreed with Putin to start Ukraine peace talks soon and exchange friendly visits – a sea change after years in which the Russian president was internationally isolated.
In the wake of the call, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested that Ukraine will not return to its pre-2014 borders nor become a member of NATO.
His statements are widely seen as a major victory for Putin and a devastating blow to Kyiv, which as a result could be forced to cede vast swathes of territory without the prospect of a security guarantee.
Moscow has frequently accused Ukraine of seeking to attack nuclear power plants with drones, which Kyiv has resolutely denied.
Wreckage of the military drone that hit the wrecked Chernobyl reactor cover was shown but the type was not immediately clear.
Russian Telegram channels claimed the strike was likely a Ukrainian stunt to derail peace talks.
Bloknot reported it was ‘looking like a Ukrainian attempt to pull apart peace deal negotiations’.
Moscow itself has not immediately responded to Ukraine’s allegations.
Russia previously occupied the site of Chernobyl earlier in the war before retreating.
The 1986 Chernobyl fire remains the world’s worst nuclear disaster. It occurred when a nuclear reactor at the plant 80 miles north of Kyiv exploded, sending a radioactive cloud across Europe.
The incident happened while Ukraine was part of the USSR, with Soviet officials initially playing down the disaster, slowing the response.
The damaged reactor was later covered by a protective shell to prevent leaks with the construction of the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement completed in 2018.
Firefighters work under the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure that covers the old sarcophagus which confines the remains of the damaged fourth reactor
Pictures shared by Ukraine appear to show damage and debris at the Chernobyl site
Meanwhile the Kremlin this morning accused Ukraine of carrying out an artillery attack on a thermal power plant it controls in southern Ukraine, which is located near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station.
Russian-installed local officials said the attack on the power plant in the city of Enerhodar had occurred late on February 13 and had left more than 50,000 people without electricity.
Urgent work was under way to try to restore electricity supplies.
Russian news agencies cited a nuclear plant official as saying that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant itself had not been damaged in the attack and was operating as usual.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said the incident at Chernobyl and recent increase in military activity around Zaporizhzhia highlight ongoing nuclear safety risks.
‘There is no room for complacency, and the IAEA remains on high alert,’ he said.
WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE 1986 CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR DISASTER?
On April 26, 1986 a power station on the outskirts of Pripyat suffered a massive accident in which one of the reactors caught fire and exploded, spreading radioactive material into the surroundings.
More than 160,000 residents of the town and surrounding areas had to be evacuated and have been unable to return, leaving the former Soviet site as a radioactive ghost town.
A map of the Chernobyl exclusion zone is pictured above. The ‘ghost town’ of Pripyat sits nearby the site of the disaster
The exclusion zone, which covers a substantial area in Ukraine and some of bordering Belarus, will remain in effect for generations to come, until radiation levels fall to safe enough levels.
The region is called a ‘dead zone’ due to the extensive radiation which persists.
However, the proliferation of wildlife in the area contradicts this and many argue that the region should be given over to the animals which have become established in the area – creating a radioactive protected wildlife reserve.
