Chernobyl, the name itself a chilling reminder of a past catastrophe, sits roughly 130 kilometers north of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, and about 20 kilometers south of the Belarus border. A 30-kilometer exclusion zone still surrounds the plant, a silent testament to the enduring impact of the 1986 disaster. While some areas within this zone have been gradually resettled, the plant itself remains a place of careful monitoring. Following the 1986 accident, three other reactors at the Soviet-era facility continued to operate, with Unit 3 being the last to shut down in December 2000.
In the tumultuous days of February 2022, as Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Chernobyl plant and the nearby ghost town of Pripyat quickly fell under russian control. Russian forces remained there until their withdrawal on March 31, 2022, when control was thankfully returned to Ukrainian personnel. During their withdrawal, Russian forces took numerous hostages to Russia, including civilians, a stark reminder of the human cost of the conflict. Since then, the IAEA has maintained a team of experts at the Chernobyl site, working diligently to ensure its ongoing safety and security amidst the chaos of war.
The IAEA’s presence extends beyond Chernobyl plant. Teams are also stationed at Ukraine’s three operational nuclear power plants, as well as the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been under russian control since the early days of March 2022. The situation at Zaporizhzhia remains a source of significant international concern.
A new strike – Chernobyl plant under fire
And now, a new chapter of concern unfolds: a recent drone strike. Firefighters successfully extinguished the resulting fire, but the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) reported that the strike caused a breach in the New Safe Confinement’s cladding, impacting the “conditions and limits of safe operation.” While thankfully, there were no casualties and no release of radioactive materials, with radiation levels remaining stable, the incident underscores the precariousness of the situation. The ChNPP statement emphasized that “the situation is under control,” but the damage itself is a worrying development.
As has become a pattern, Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations regarding the drone strike. Ukraine has blamed Russia for the drone strike, while Russia denied it was responsible and blamed Ukraine. Russia always behaves like that – it’s not something new. The IAEA, consistent with its mandate, has refrained from assigning blame during the ongoing war. As Director General Grossi explained at a UN press conference last April, the agency is not in the business of political commentary. “We are not commentators. We are not political speculators or analysts, we are an international agency of inspectors,” he stated. He further clarified that attributing blame, particularly in the case of drone strikes, requires concrete, irrefutable evidence – evidence that is often impossible to obtain in the fog of war.
