Kyiv and Moscow have blamed each other after a drone hit a protective structure at the Chernobyl atomic power plant in northern Ukraine, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster which happened in 1986.
Ukraine said the strike, which left only minor damage and did not raise radiation levels at the decommissioned plant, showed that Russian president Vladimir Putin had no real desire to join a peace process pursued by US president Donald Trump; Moscow, meanwhile, accused Kyiv of carrying out the drone attack to alarm the international community and portray the Kremlin and its military as reckless threats to world security.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) did not apportion blame for the incident, but has repeatedly warned that Europe’s biggest war since 1945 poses a threat to nuclear safety, and has appealed in vain for a security zone to be put in place around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – the largest in Europe – which has been controlled by Russia’s invasion force since early 2022.
“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. This is a terrorist threat to the entire world,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday as he prepared to meet senior US officials at the Munich Security Conference.
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“Every night, Russia carries out such attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure and cities ... This means that Putin is definitely not preparing for negotiations – he is preparing to continue deceiving the world. That is why there must be unified pressure from all who value life – pressure on the aggressor. Russia must be held accountable for its actions.”
Ukraine released photographs of parts of the drone that hit the radiation containment shelter around Chernobyl’s destroyed nuclear reactor and said they belonged to a Russian-made version of the explosive “Shahed” drones supplied to Moscow by Iran.
“The Russian military doesn’t do that. It is most likely a provocation, a set-up, which the Kyiv regime does not hesitate to stage,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Mr Zelenskiy did not want to visit the Munich conference “empty-handed”.
“Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that this is a provocation?” Ms Zakharova said. “A performance was needed to lobby for arms deliveries and convince the global public. A scary, bloody and very dangerous performance.”
The IAEA said on Tuesday that a planned change of monitors at the occupied Zaporizhzhia plant had been cancelled due to “intense military activity in the region”.
“Despite written assurances received from both sides that the planned rotation could take place safely, the situation proved to be too dangerous for the teams to continue and the mission was aborted.”
