{"id":176647,"date":"2025-02-17T12:34:54","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T02:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=176647"},"modified":"2025-02-17T12:35:28","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T02:35:28","slug":"russian-drone-attack-damages-chernobyl-radiation-shelter-ukraines-president-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=176647","title":{"rendered":"Russian drone attack damages Chernobyl radiation shelter, Ukraine&#8217;s president says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A Russian drone attack caused significant damage to the radiation shelter of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chernobyl was the site of the world&#8217;s worst civil nuclear catastrophe when one of its four reactors exploded in 1986. That reactor is now enveloped by a protective shelter, known as a sarcophagus, to contain the lingering radiation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Russian drone struck the shelter of the destroyed power unit at the plant, causing a fire that has since been extinguished, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">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.<br><br>This shelter was built by Ukraine together with other countries of Europe and the world,\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mLTGeDYgPT\">pic.twitter.com\/mLTGeDYgPT<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Volodymyr Zelenskyy \/ \u0412\u043e\u043b\u043e\u0434\u0438\u043c\u0438\u0440 \u0417\u0435\u043b\u0435\u043d\u0441\u044c\u043a\u0438\u0439 (@ZelenskyyUa) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ZelenskyyUa\/status\/1890298176038682905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 14, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;As of now, radiation levels have not increased and are being constantly monitored,&#8221; Zelenskyy said, adding that an initial assessment had found significant damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;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&#8217;s Russia,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was no immediate comment from Russia, which has repeatedly denied targeting civilian facilities during its war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the strike occurred early on Friday local time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It said there was &#8220;no indication of a breach in the &#8230; inner containment&#8221; shell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">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. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Ee5NSRgDo8\">pic.twitter.com\/Ee5NSRgDo8<\/a><\/p>&mdash; IAEA &#8211; International Atomic Energy Agency \u269b\ufe0f (@iaeaorg) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/iaeaorg\/status\/1890290202599633111?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 14, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The three-year Russia-Ukraine war has brought repeated warnings of dangers to Ukraine&#8217;s four nuclear plants, especially at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which is Europe&#8217;s biggest and one of the ten largest in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said on X the strike and the recent increase in military activity near the Zaporizhzhia plant &#8220;underline persistent nuclear safety risks&#8221;, adding that the IAEA remains &#8220;on high alert&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The IAEA said its personnel at the site responded within minutes of the strike, adding there were no casualties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Radiation levels inside and outside remain normal and stable,&#8221; the agency said on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The shelter, known as the New Safe Confinement, is a hulking arch-shaped steel and concrete structure that was completed in 2019 to cover an earlier Soviet-built version, which had deteriorated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, the New Safe Confinement cost around $2.48 billion (1.5 billion euros) and was financed by 45 donor countries and institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zelenskyy is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sbs.com.au\/news\/article\/out-of-control-jd-vance-takes-aim-at-european-leaders-over-free-speech-immigration\/65dqg78aj\">in Munich on Friday to meet US Vice President JD Vance<\/a> at a delicate diplomatic moment with US President Donald Trump pushing for rapid negotiations and an end to the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president&#8217;s chief of staff, said the US had contributed significant amounts of money and effort to building the New Safe Confinement structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We will provide a lot of information to our American partners today about Russia&#8217;s strikes on the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, about how they constantly launch drones over the Chernobyl zone, about the threat of shelter and nuclear security that they pose,&#8221; Yermak wrote on Telegram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The atmosphere at the moment is that everyone is very angry at this news here in Munich. Not &#8216;concerned&#8217;, as is often the case, but really angry.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Russian drone attack has hit the radiation shelter over the damaged reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":176648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,309,341,1],"tags":[15384,15385],"class_list":["post-176647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-russia","category-ukraine","category-uncategorized","tag-chernobyl","tag-chernobyl-nuclear-power-plant"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=176647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176649,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176647\/revisions\/176649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/176648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=176647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=176647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=176647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}