Ukrainian officials said on Sunday that a Russian drone has attacked a storage facility for used nuclear fuel near the disused Chernobyl plant.
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, said it had received information about the attack and that radiation levels at the site remained stable.
The facility is located about 15 kilometers (9 mi) from the Chernobyl plant, which was the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986.
The event comes as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to host the leaders of Ukraine, France and Germany to discuss ongoing support for Ukraine in the fight against Russian full-scale aggression.
What do we know about the attack?
Kyiv’s General Staff and the state nuclear agency issued separate statements on the incident, saying that a container receiving building was partially destroyed in the attack.
He said there was no spent fuel at the facility at the time of the attack.
The fire that broke out after the attack was successfully extinguished, with no casualties reported.
In a statement, the IAEA said a team would soon visit the site “to observe the impact.”
Zelensky called the attack ‘extremely disgusting’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack “an extremely vicious Russian attack”.
“Today, the Russians again attacked the special zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. A ‘martyr’ hit one of the buildings of the centralized spent fuel storage facility,” he wrote on X, referring to a common Russian attack drone.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiha wrote on Twitter that this is not the first time that Russia has threatened nuclear facilities in Ukraine.
“Russia’s nuclear blackmail and threats to nuclear security are systemic, deliberate, and unacceptable,” he wrote on X.
In February 2025, a control arch at the damaged Chernobyl reactor was hit by a Russian drone in an attack denied by Moscow.
Both sides have also accused the other of attacking the Russian-held Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine.
Britain to hold Ukraine support meeting
As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues its fifth year in a row, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is to hold a meeting on Sunday with Zelensky and European partners on Kiev’s support.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron will be present in the talks.
Britain and France lead the so-called “coalition of the willing” initiative to provide security guarantees for Ukraine as part of the peace process, while Germany provides the most support to Kiev outright.
Edited by: Dmytro Lyubenko
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