An explosion early Valentine’s Day morning caused a fire overnight at the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on X.
“Ukrainian firefighters have been working around the clock in freezing weather to completely extinguish small fires that still smoulder after Friday’s drone strike on the building containing the remains of the reactor destroyed in the 1986 Chornobyl accident,” Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a statement on the nuclear watchdog’s website Saturday.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on X Friday blamed a “Russian attack drone with a high-explosive warhead” on the explosion. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied this claim to reporters Friday, according to media reports.
“There is no question of any strikes on such nuclear infrastructure sites,” Peskov said. “Any claims that this was the case do not correspond to reality. The Russian military does not do this.”
According to IAEA on X, the explosion came around the New Safe Confinement, which protects what remains of reactor four from the former Chernobyl plant. The agency said no casualties were reported, and that radiation levels remain normal.
The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and reactor four in April 1986 is widely considered by many as the world’s most severe nuclear accident.
