Last night, a drone hit the outer shell that protected the world from the radiation of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Kyiv blamed Russia and Moscow denied it had anything to do with the attack.
Last night, a Russian attack drone with a high-explosive warhead struck the shelter protecting the world from radiation at the destroyed 4th power unit of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
This shelter was built by Ukraine together with other countries of Europe and the world,… pic.twitter.com/mLTGeDYgPT
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 14, 2025
“Last night, a Russian attack drone with a high-explosive warhead struck the shelter protecting the world from radiation at the destroyed 4th power unit of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said of the attack.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had a rundown of the facts. “During the night of 13-14 Feb, at around 01:50, IAEA team at the Chornobyl site heard an explosion coming from the New Safe Confinement (NSC), which protects the remains of reactor 4 of the former Chornobyl [Nuclear Power Plant], causing a fire. They were informed that a UAV had struck the NSC roof,” it said in a post on X. The IAEA said that no radiation had leaked out, that radiation levels were normal, and that the drone strike did not affect the interior of the NSC.
During the night of 13-14 Feb, at around 01:50, IAEA team at the Chornobyl site heard an explosion coming from the New Safe Confinement, which protects the remains of reactor 4 of the former Chornobyl NPP, causing a fire. They were informed that a UAV had struck the NSC roof. pic.twitter.com/Ee5NSRgDo8
— IAEA – International Atomic Energy Agency (@iaeaorg) February 14, 2025
The Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant has been a source of wonder and fear since one of its reactors melted down in 1986. It spread radiation across the planet and the Soviet Union and Ukraine covered the reactor in a concrete sarcophagus to trap the relentless tide of radioactive material inside from poisoning the planet.
But the radioactive material is still in there, still active, still flowing, and always pushing against the bounds of its prison. Europe has spent the last two decades designing and constructing a new barrier to slide over the sarcophagus and keep the radiation at bay. This is the New Safe Confinement, a massive project that’s pulled in governments and cash from across Europe.
The NSC looks like an enormous airplane hanger that covers the concrete sarcophagus coating the remnants of reactor 4. The NSC weighs 36,000 tonnes and stands more than 350 feet high. Notre Dame would fit inside. The massive arch was meant to last 100 years but could not withstand Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and now it’s got a hole at the top of it.
The strike comes as President Trump and his Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth are trying to convince Kyiv and the rest of the world that it’s time for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. “It clearly shows that the [the Russians] don’t want peace,” Kaja Kallas, the foreign policy chief for the European Union, told journalists after the strike. “All these other talks have been totally obsolete because of the bombing of the nuclear station, bombing of civilians, bombing of civilian infrastructure.”
As the IAEA noted in its statements about the fire at Chornobyl, Russia has been playing with nuclear fire during the entire invasion. In 2022, Russian forces assaulted the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and started a fire. Fighting has continued off and on around the nuclear plant ever since. That same year, Russian troops traveled through the heavily contaminated Red Forest outside of Chornobyl, stirring up enough dust to put clouds of radioactive dust in the atmosphere.
A Kremlin spokesperson denied that Russia was involved in this new attack on Chornobyl and called the whole thing a false flag. “There is no talk about strikes on nuclear infrastructure, nuclear energy facilities. Any such claim isn’t true. Our military doesn’t do that,” he told reporters during a conference call.
