A Russian Shahed drone struck a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel near the disused Chornobyl power plant north of Kyiv on Sunday. Ukrainian officials reported that a container-receiving building was partially destroyed, though no spent fuel was stored there at the time of the attack. A resulting fire was extinguished and no injuries were reported.
Radiation levels at the site remained stable, as confirmed by the UN's nuclear watchdog. Despite the lack of a radiation spike, the Director General of the IAEA described the incident as deeply concerning, noting that it occurred at a facility containing large amounts of nuclear material.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the deliberate attack extremely vile. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stated that Russia's nuclear blackmail and threats to nuclear safety are systemic and unacceptable. The targeted facility is located approximately 15 kilometers from the Chornobyl plant, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster.
This event follows a February 2025 drone attack that damaged a containment arch over the Chornobyl reactor, which Russia denied responsibility for. Kyiv and Moscow have also traded accusations of attacking the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe's largest. Russia has not publicly commented on the most recent strike.