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.

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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”.

Drone kills two in Ukraine

Elsewhere in Ukraine, officials said Russian drone strikes on Sunday killed at least two people.

A 56-year-old man working as a minibus driver was killed in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhia region, Ukraine’s emergency services said on Telegram.

A 59-year-old man was killed in a separate attack in the central Dnipropetrovsk region when Russian drones and aerial bombs rained down over two districts, regional military chief Oleksandr Ganzha posted on Telegram.

The attack wounded a 35-year-old man and damaged infrastructure, Ganzha said.

According to the Ukrainian air force, Russia targeted the country with 236 drones overnight, of which 215 were intercepted.

Zelenskyy to meet allies in UK

The attacks came as world leaders gathered in the United Kingdom to discuss piling pressure on Moscow over its four-year war.

Zelenskyy will meet the leaders of France, Germany and the UK later on Sunday in London for talks on the way forward as Russia suffers military setbacks.

The so-called E3 group of European nations has been a prominent backer of Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing war.

Zelenskyy proposed a face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin in an open letter to the Russian president on Thursday, saying he was also ready for a “full ceasefire”. However, Putin turned down the offer, saying he saw no point in such a meeting for now.

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