Russian Drone Hits Chernobyl Nuclear Radiation Shield, Ukraine Says

• Feb. 14, 2025Updated 9:03 a.m. ET

Russia’s military used a drone with a high-explosive warhead to hit the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine overnight, damaging the protective shelter that prevents radiation leaks, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Friday.

In a post on social media, Mr. Zelensky called the damage “significant” but said that there were no signs of increased radiation at the plant, the site of the worst nuclear accident in history. Denys Shmyhal, the Ukrainian prime minister, said Friday morning that emergency crews had extinguished a fire at the site. A Kremlin spokesman denied that Russia had attacked the plant.

The structure that was damaged was designed to seal in vast quantities of radioactive isotopes from the fire and meltdown in 1986 at Chernobyl’s Reactor No. 4, and was intended to last generations.

The strike comes as pressure grows on Ukraine and Russia to sit down at the bargaining table three years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion. It also comes as world leaders are gathered in Munich for an annual security conference where the war in Ukraine — and recent statements by President Trump and his team indicating that they want to pursue a quick peace deal — will probably dominate conversations.

Many attending the Munich conference will remember the radioactive clouds that spread over parts of Europe after the accident at Chernobyl, which happened when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. The accident was initially covered up by the Soviet authorities.