A Russian drone struck a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel near Ukraine’s disused Chernobyl power plant, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday, adding that radiation levels at the site remained stable.
In separate statements, Kyiv’s General Staff and the state atomic agency said a container-receiving building had been partially destroyed, but that no spent fuel had been stored there at the time of the attack.
A resulting fire was extinguished, and no injuries were reported.
Russia has not publicly commented on the alleged attack on the facility, which is located around 15 km (9 miles) from the Chernobyl plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
“This is not the first time Russian forces are putting Ukrainian nuclear facilities at risk,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.
“Russia’s nuclear blackmail and threats to nuclear safety are systemic, deliberate, and unacceptable.”
In February 2025, a Russian attack drone damaged a containment arch over the Chernobyl reactor that was destroyed in the April 1986 explosion and meltdown. Russia denied responsibility.
Kyiv and Moscow have also traded accusations of attacking the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southeastern Ukraine, Europe’s largest.
“Today, the Russians again struck the special territory around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. A ‘shahed’ hit one of the buildings of the Centralized Spent Fuel Storage Facility,” he wrote on X, referring to a common Russian attack drone.
“An extremely critical infrastructure facility – and an extremely vile Russian strike.” He added.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that the strike caused significant damage to the fuel reception building at the facility, with nearby buildings also being affected by the blast wave.
Ukraine has stated that radiation levels at the facility remain ‘within established limits’ and the IAEA team is planning to visit the facility to assess the impact as soon as possible.
