Ukraine says drone hit nuclear fuel storage facility near Chernobyl

Ukraine says a Russian drone struck a spent nuclear fuel storage facility near Chernobyl, prompting concern from the IAEA over nuclear safety risks

Ukraine said Moscow’s forces struck a nuclear fuel storage facility near the mothballed Chernobyl power plant north of Kyiv, an incident that drew a sharp retort from the UN’s atomic watchdog.  

The Ukrainian General Staff said a Russian Shahed drone had hit a building that’s part of the centralized spent fuel storage facility within the Chernobyl exclusion zone. A small fire was extinguished within an hour, the General Staff posted on Telegram. 

Russia hasn’t commented on the incident.   

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it had been informed of the attack and its team would soon visit the facility and inspect the damage.  

 

The facility, about 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) from the Chernobyl plant, is used to provide long-term storage for spent nuclear fuel from Ukraine’s operating atomic power plants.  

“The strike caused significant damage to the facility’s fuel reception building — including to the facade, windows and doors —- and nearby buildings were also affected by the blast wave,” the UN’s nuclear watchdog said.  

Radiation levels at the facility remain within established limits, Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear power plant operator, said in a Facebook post.  

Ukraine’s foreign ministry and energy ministry “are already working to ensure that each of our partners knows what has happened,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X, describing the strike as “extremely vile.”  

“As of now, there are no readings exceeding normal background radiation levels. But there is certainly an increase in Russia’s brazenness,” Zelenskyy said.  

Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the IAEA, said the incident was “deeply concerning as it occurred at a facility containing large amounts of nuclear material, held in storage just meters away from the attacked building.”    

“This is not the first time Russian forces are putting Ukrainian nuclear facilities at risk,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X. “Russia’s nuclear blackmail and threats to nuclear safety are systemic, deliberate, and unacceptable.” 

The Chernobyl incident comes a week after Moscow claimed a Ukrainian drone had hit the idled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeast Ukraine, which Russian forces have controlled since the first weeks of the war.  

The IAEA also inspected the Zaporizhzhia site following the strike and confirmed it was a drone attack. Ukraine’s southern military command denied any strikes against the facility.