Russian drone damages Chernobyl structure

A Russian drone had badly damaged the confinement structure around the disused Chernobyl nuclear power plant intended to prevent the release of nuclear substances, a senior nuclear industry official said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had earlier reported that radiation levels remained normal at the plant.

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, accused Zelenskiy of orchestrating a drone attack to coincide with the Munich event as part of a lobbying effort to secure more weapons and money from the West.

Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst civil nuclear catastrophe when one of its four reactors exploded in 1986. That reactor is now enclosed by a shelter to contain the lingering radiation.

Chernobyl's last working reactor shut in 2000. Russia occupied the plant and the surrounding area for more than a month during its push to take the Ukrainian capital Kyiv at the beginning of the invasion.

The containment vessel was completed in 2019 to cover the vast, and deteriorating, steel and concrete structure hurriedly erected after the April 1986 explosion in the plant's fourth reactor.

Emergency crews clambered over the roof of the structure attending to a large gaping hole.

The Russian drone struck the shelter of the destroyed power unit at the plant, causing a fire that has since been extinguished, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

"As of now, radiation levels have not increased and are being constantly monitored," he said, adding that an initial assessment had found significant damage.

"The only country in the world that attacks such sites, occupies nuclear power plants, and wages war without any regard for the consequences is today’s Russia," he said.

An explosion caused a fire overnight at the site of the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

The agency said the blast was reported at the New Safe Confinement, a dome which protects the remains of reactor 4.

It said no casualties were reported.