On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that a Russian drone had caused serious damage to the radiation containment shelter at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. This shelter was built to prevent the spread of harmful radiation from the explosion that occurred in 1986.
Thankfully, Zelensky, along with the UN’s atomic energy agency, assured the public that radiation levels were normal after the incident. The attack occurred while top officials from the US, Ukraine, and Europe were in Munich discussing the ongoing war in Ukraine.
According to Chornobyl’s chief engineer, a drone exploded inside the shelter and damaged part of the structure that keeps radiation contained. This was a worrying development because the Chornobyl site is still dealing with the dangerous aftermath of the 1986 nuclear disaster.
The explosion caused a fire, which was quickly put out, but the damage to the shelter was significant. The chief engineer, Oleksandr Tytarchuk, said that the structure which was supposed to stop radioactive substances from spreading was no longer functioning as it should. The damage could have been much worse, Tytarchuk added, if the drone had hit the shelter just a little bit further.
Zelensky shared pictures on the Telegram app showing the damage, including the fire at the top of the New Safe Confinement, a huge steel and concrete structure that covers the original reactor. This structure was built to last for 100 years and was completed in 2019 at a cost of about $1.6 billion, with help from 45 donor countries.
Ukraine’s security service identified the drone as a Geran-2, which is a Russian version of the Iranian Shahed-136. It was carrying a warhead designed to cause damage to the reactor enclosure. However, experts believe that although the warhead was powerful, it wasn’t likely to cause huge amounts of damage like a missile would.
The attack seemed to be a way for Russia to draw attention to itself during this time of international talks. Photos from the site showed a small fire near the top of the New Safe Confinement, but the structure is still standing strong.
Zelensky also mentioned in Munich that the drone had flown below radar at a height of just 85 meters, making it difficult to detect. Meanwhile, the war continues to unfold, with new challenges ahead for Ukraine.
