Thomson Reuters

· Posted: Jun 07, 2026 8:55 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

Russian forces deliberately struck a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel near Ukraine's Chornobyl power plant, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday, in an "extremely vile" attack that did not lead to a spike in radiation.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said the strike significantly damaged a fuel-reception building, but after inspecting the impact area, it found that the radiation levels at the facility remained normal.

Kyiv's state atomic agency, Energoatom, said no spent fuel had been stored in the building at the time of the attack. A resulting fire was extinguished, and no injuries were reported.

Russia has not publicly commented on the alleged strike on the facility, which is located about 15 kilometres from the Chornobyl plant, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986.

"An extremely critical infrastructure facility — and an extremely vile Russian strike," Zelenskyy wrote on social media platform X. He added that Russia had used a Shahed attack drone.

"As of now, there are no readings exceeding normal background radiation levels. But there is certainly an increase in Russia's brazenness, which long ago went off the charts."

In February 2025, a Russian Shahed drone damaged a containment arch over the Chornobyl reactor that was destroyed in the April 1986 explosion and meltdown. Russia, which regularly attacks Ukrainian cities and infrastructure with drones and missiles, denied responsibility.

Kyiv and Moscow have also traded accusations of attacking the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine, Europe's largest.