CNN
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a Russian drone struck the destroyed nuclear power plant at Chernobyl on Thursday night.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service later said that the radiation background limits remain within normal limits.
“A Russian attack drone with a high-explosive warhead struck the shelter protecting the world from radiation at the destroyed 4th power unit” at the plant, Zelensky said on X.
The concrete shelter that covers the unit was damaged, Zelensky added, and a fire was extinguished. “Radiation levels have not increased and are being constantly monitored. According to initial assessments, the damage to the shelter is significant,” Zelensky said.
Video posted by Zelensky on X showed a bright pulse of light emanate from a large structure, followed by a tower of smoke that billowed into the night sky.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said on X that shortly before 2 a.m. local time its team at the Chernobyl site “heard an explosion coming from the New Safe Confinement, which protects the remains of reactor 4 of the former Chernobyl NPP, causing a fire.”
“They were informed that a UAV [drone] had struck the NSC roof,” the IAEA added.
Unit 4 at Chernobyl – near Ukraine’s border with Belarus – exploded in 1986, sending extensive clouds of radioactivity across parts of the Soviet Union and Europe. It was later encased in a concrete and steel sarcophagus.
The sarcophagus was the work of an international coalition and took decades to build. It was finally finished in 2017 and weighs 35,000 tonnes
Altogether, on Thursday night, the Ukrainian military reported that Russia launched 133 drones at Ukraine, 73 of which were shot down and 58 of which did not reach their target. The numbers are broadly in line with the recent average of drone attacks. The military said drones were shot down in 11 regions, covering much of the country.
The incident came hours before the beginning of the high-level Munich Security Conference in Germany, where US Vice President JD Vance is set to meet with Zelensky. European leaders are reeling from President Donald Trump’s bombshell announcement that negotiations to end the Ukraine war will start “immediately” after he held a “highly productive” call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
Zelensky said in his post that the nightly drone attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure meant that Putin “is definitely not preparing for negotiations — he is preparing to continue deceiving the world.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.