Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has said that it is classifying Russia’s reported overnight drone strike on the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant as a war crime.
The SBU said its investigators have started criminal proceedings into the impact that damaged the concrete shell of the plant’s fourth power unit.
Despite the damage, Ukrainian officials have said that radiation levels remain normal.
Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that a Russian drone struck the destroyed nuclear power plant at Chernobyl near Ukraine’s border with Belarus on Thursday night.
He said on X that 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.
He added that the concrete shelter that covers the unit was damaged and a fire was extinguished.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said on X that 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 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.
Moscow denied involvement in the incident.
Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov told a media call that he did not have exact information.
“But I know one thing: there can be no question of strikes being carried out on nuclear infrastructure or nuclear energy facilities. Therefore, any claim that this is the case is not true.
“The Russian military does not do this. Most likely, this is yet another provocation, a frame-up.”
Dmitry Peskov
However, the SBU asserted that it had discovered the wreckage of a type of Shahed drone, which Russia has used extensively in airstrikes on Ukraine. “For maximum damage, this attack drone was equipped with a high-explosive warhead,” the SBU wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor’s Office said that it has launched an investigation.
Under international humanitarian law, nuclear power plants – which are civilian objects – are protected against attacks.
Sybiha Meets IAEA Chief After Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Attack
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha held an “urgent meeting” with Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), following Russia’s reported overnight drone strike on the former nuclear power plant in Chernobyl.
Sybiha said that he met with Grossi in Germany, where world leaders – including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US Vice President JD Vance – are meeting for the annual Munich Security Conference.
Sybiha wrote on social media, “We urge strong international reactions to Russia’s nuclear blackmail.”
He said that he had passed Grossi a letter from Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galushchenko, about the consequences of the reported strike.
Sybiha said he and Grossi also discussed Russia’s continued occupation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP).
Russian troops took the ZNPP in March 2022, in the early weeks of Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
The plant’s Ukrainian staff were initially forced to work at gunpoint, according to Ukrainian officials.
Grossi said in summer 2022 that “every principle of nuclear safety” had been “violated” at the ZNPP.
He managed to secure his IAEA staff a visit in August of that year, while it remained under Russian control. By mid-2023, all reactors at the plant had been put into a “cold shutdown” status, limiting the chance of a major nuclear event.
Sybiha said that Russia continues to block IAEA rotations and hold “the plant hostage”, adding that he and Grossi “agreed that the ZNPP must return under Ukraine’s control.”
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