drone struck – Ukrainian officials say a Russian drone hit a spent nuclear fuel storage facility near the disused Chernobyl power plant. They report stable radiation levels, partial damage to a container-receiving building, no spent fuel stored at the time, and no injuries—w
For a moment, the numbers mattered more than the flames. Ukrainian officials said a Russian drone struck a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel near Ukraine’s disused Chernobyl power plant, and they added that radiation levels at the site remained stable.
Kyiv’s General Staff and Ukraine’s state atomic agency said that the attack partially destroyed a container-receiving building. They also said no spent fuel had been stored there at the time of the strike. A fire that followed the impact was extinguished, and no injuries were reported.
The facility sits around 9 miles from the Chernobyl plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster. Russia has not publicly commented on the alleged attack.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X: “This is not the first time Russian forces are putting Ukrainian nuclear facilities at risk.” He added: “Russia’s nuclear blackmail and threats to nuclear safety are systemic, deliberate, and unacceptable.”
The warning lands with weight because it comes after damage linked to the same nuclear complex. In February 2025, a Russian attack drone damaged a containment arch over the Chernobyl reactor—the structure destroyed in the April 1986 explosion and meltdown. Russia denied responsibility.
There’s also a wider pattern of blame across Ukraine’s nuclear sites. Kyiv and Moscow have traded accusations of attacking the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southeastern Ukraine, Europe’s largest.
The immediate facts from the Chernobyl area are specific: a container-receiving building partially damaged. a fire extinguished. no injuries reported. and radiation levels said to remain stable. But the question that refuses to fade is the same one Sybiha raised—why nuclear infrastructure keeps becoming a target. even when officials insist the safety impact is limited in the moment.
Chernobyl spent nuclear fuel drone strike Russian attack Ukrainian officials radiation levels nuclear safety Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant