Russian drone strike damages site near Chornobyl nuclear plant

Russian forces have targeted a storage facility ⁠for spent nuclear ⁠fuel near Ukraine’s Chornobyl power plant, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

The strike on Sunday significantly damaged a fuel-reception building metres away from where “large amounts of nuclear ⁠material” is stored, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which said it had been briefed by Ukraine.

Russia has regularly attacked Ukrainian cities and infrastructure with drones and missiles since its full-scale invasion of the country in 2022. In February 2025, Russia allegedly used a Shahed drone to damage a containment arch over the Chornobyl reactor that was destroyed in the ‌April 1986 explosion and meltdown.

Zelenskyy called Sunday’s strike “extremely vile”, accusing Russia of using a Shahed attack drone.

“As of now, there are no readings exceeding normal background radiation levels. But there is ⁠certainly an increase in Russia’s brazenness, which long ago went off the charts,” he said.

Kyiv’s state atomic agency Energoatom said no spent fuel had been stored in the building at ‌the time of the attack. The resulting fire was extinguished and no injuries were reported.

Russia has not publicly commented on the alleged strike on the facility, which is located about 15km (9 miles) from the Chornobyl plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.

In a ⁠statement, the IAEA said a team ⁠would soon visit the site “to inspect the impact”.