Zelensky warns that Russian drones endanger Chernobyl and other nuclear plants

Russia’s sustained bombardment of Ukraine’s power grid is deepening concerns about the safety of the country’s nuclear facilities after a drone knocked out power for more than three hours to the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in northern Ukraine, officials said.

The drone strike adds to concerns raised more than a week ago when the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in south-eastern Ukraine became disconnected from the power grid following attacks that each side has blamed on the other.

Both Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia are not currently operational, but they require a constant power supply to run crucial cooling systems for spent fuel rods in order to avoid a potential nuclear incident.

A blackout also could blind radiation monitoring systems installed to boost security at Chernobyl and operated by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“Russia is deliberately creating the threat of radiation incidents,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said, as he criticised the UN nuclear watchdog and its chief Rafael Mariano Grossi for what he described as weak responses to the danger.

“Every day of Russia’s war, every strike on our energy facilities, including those connected to nuclear safety, is a global threat,” he said.

“Weak and half-measures will not work. Strong action is needed.”

Russian president Vladimir Putin rejected Ukrainian claims that Russia has been shelling the power lines around the Zaporizhzhia plant as “nonsense”. He blamed Ukraine for attacking the Moscow-controlled plant – and warned that Russia could respond in kind.

It came as Russia launched its biggest attack of the war overnight against natural gas facilities run by Ukraine’s state-owned Naftogaz Group, officials said on Friday.

Russia fired a total of 381 drones and 35 missiles at Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s air force, in what officials say was an attempt to wreck the Ukrainian power grid ahead of winter and wear down public appetite for the thee-year conflict.

“This is deliberate terror against civilian facilities that provide gas extraction and processing for the normal life of people,” Serhii Koretskyi, chief executive of Ukraine’s state-owned gas company Naftogaz, said in a statement.

“It has no military purpose. This is yet another act of Russian malice aimed solely at disrupting the heating season and depriving Ukrainians of warmth in winter.”

Russia aimed 35 missiles, many of them ballistic, and 60 drones at Naftogaz’s gas extraction and processing facilities in the northeastern Kharkiv and central Poltava regions, some of which sustained critical damage, Mr Koretskyi said.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces launched a mass strike using drones and guided weapons against Ukraine’s military-industrial complex and the gas and energy infrastructure that supports it.

“All designated targets were hit,” it said in a statement.

The war that followed Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbour more than three years ago appears no closer to ending, despite months of US-led peace efforts.

Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address that Russia launched over 20 Shahed drones against energy infrastructure in Slavutych, the city whose power supply services Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident nearly 40 years ago.

A wave of drones overwhelmed defences and caused a blackout on Wednesday, he said, affecting the sarcophagus that prevents radioactive dust from escaping the destroyed fourth reactor and storage housing more than 3,000 tonnes of spent fuel. He did not provide details of how it was affected.

“The Russians could not have been unaware that a strike on Slavutych would have such consequences for Chernobyl,” Mr Zelensky said.

Last February, a drone armed with a warhead hit Chernobyl’s protective outer shell, briefly starting a fire. Radiation levels there did not increase, officials said.

The Zaporizhzhia plant, which is Europe’s biggest and one of the 10 biggest nuclear facilities in the world, has been disconnected from the grid for over a week.

It has repeatedly been caught in the crossfire during the war. Mr Zelensky blamed Russian artillery for cutting the power line to the plant, but Mr Putin mocked the claim, saying: “Are we striking ourselves?”

He accused Ukraine of “playing a dangerous game” by attacking the plant, adding ominously: “People on the other side must understand that if they continue this dangerous game, they also have functioning nuclear power plants.

“What would prevent us from responding in kind?” he added. “Let them think about it.”

The facility is using emergency diesel generators to run cooling systems for its six shutdown reactors and spent fuel.

The IAEA says the plant is not in immediate danger but wants it swiftly reconnected to the grid.

Ukraine’s energy ministry said the situation is unprecedented, saying: “No nuclear power plant in the world has ever operated under such conditions, and it is impossible to make any reliable forecasts.”

Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war on Thursday.

Mr Zelensky said 185 military personal, most of whom had been in Russian captivity since 2022, and 20 civilians were returned home.

Since the war began, more than 7,000 Ukrainians have returned, Mr Zelensky said on Telegram.

Russia’s defence ministry said 185 of its soldiers and 20 civilians returned.