A drone with an explosive warhead has smashed a hole in the radiation shield at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.
The plant’s chief engineer, Alexander Titarchuk, said there was a “possibility of a leak of radioactive substances, but the situation is under control”.
“The barrier which was supposed to prevent the spread of radioactive substances has ceased to function according to its original design,” he added.
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Emergency crews were seen scaling the roof to repair the damage after a fire briefly broke out.
Workers were seen on the roof trying to repair the damage. Pic: AP
However, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said radiation levels hadn’t increased after Friday’s incident.
The agency also said there was no damage to the plant’s inner containment shell.
Mr Zelenskyy told the Munich Security Conference the strike was a “very clear greeting from Putin and Russian Federation to the security conference”.
Chernobyl was famously the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident in 1986, with radioactive fallout spewing over a large part of Europe.
Its reactors are now encased in a huge protective structure resembling an aircraft hangar.
The strike tore a hole in the protective shield. Pic: Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Ukraine blamed Russia for the drone strike – but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the claim, saying “our military doesn’t do that”.
The IAEA did not attribute blame and only said its team stationed there had heard an explosion. It has not been possible to independently confirm who was behind the strike.
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, has also been occasionally hit by drones during the war – but fears of a major accident have so far not materialised.
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The Chernobyl strike came a few days after Donald Trump said he would meet Vladimir Putin to start peace negotiations after talking to the Russian leader on the phone.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth cautioned this week any peace deal would be unlikely to see Ukraine regain all the territory taken by Russia since 2014 and also poured cold water on the prospect of it joining NATO.
Getting back the stolen land is something President Zelenskyy has long insisted on – and the statement raised concerns over Ukraine being sidelined in negotiations.
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Mr Zelenskyy told the Munich conference on Friday he would not negotiate with Mr Putin until the US and Europe had agreed a common plan.
But he said he didn’t believe the US had a clear way forward yet.
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He also said he thinks his country should have an army of one and a half million, with modern weapons, if its ambition to join NATO is denied.