A Russian drone strike on Chernobyl has hit a building at the central storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the exclusion zone around the decommissioned nuclear power plant, Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday.
The container reception building was partially destroyed in the overnight attack, state energy company Energoatom posted on Telegram. No spent nuclear fuel had been stored there, it added, noting that radiation levels were within established limits.
A fire broke out in an area of 40 square metres and was subsequently extinguished, the company said.
The central storage facility in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl plant - which suffered a catastrophic accident 40 years ago - is used for the long-term storage of spent fuel from other Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had been informed by the Ukrainian side of "significant damage" to the fuel reception building, also affecting the facade, windows and doors. Neighbouring buildings had also been damaged by the blast wave, it said. An IAEA team would visit the site shortly to assess the impact, the agency added in a post on X.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi described the incident as "deeply concerning," according to the post, as it had occurred at a facility containing large amounts of nuclear material, just metres from the building that was struck.
He said attacks on nuclear facilities were completely unacceptable and directly violated core principles of nuclear safety during armed conflict.
There have been several incidents at nuclear power plants in the course of Russia's war in Ukraine, now well into its fifth year. The Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in the south has been particularly affected by the fighting.
