KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian drone with a high-explosive warhead hit the protecting confinement shell of the Chernobyl Nuclear Energy Plant within the Kyiv area through the night time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated Friday.
Radiation ranges haven’t elevated, Zelenskyy and the U.N. atomic company stated.
Russian officers made no quick remark, and it was not attainable to independently affirm Ukraine’s declare of Russian duty.
Zelenskyy stated that the drone strike broken the construction and began a hearth, which has been put out.
The Worldwide Atomic Power Company stated the strike occurred at 1:50 a.m. native time (2350 GMT). It stated there was “no indication of a breach within the … interior containment” shell.
The shell is a protecting cowl constructed across the fourth reactor of the plant, which exploded in 1986, inflicting one of many worst nuclear accidents in nuclear historical past.
In-built 2016, the shell is designed to restrict the discharge of radioactivity left within the reactor to the ambiance.
The three-year Russia-Ukraine battle has introduced repeated warnings of risks to Ukraine’s 4 nuclear crops, particularly on the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant in southern Ukraine, which is Europe’s largest and one of many 10 largest on the earth.
IAEA chief Rafael Rossi, stated on X that the strike on the CNPP and the latest enhance in navy exercise close to the Zaporizhzhia plant “underline persistent nuclear security dangers,” including that the IAEA stays “on excessive alert.”
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