President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Vladimir Putin’s Russia of deliberately striking a nuclear storage facility at Chernobyl, calling the incident “extremely vile”. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed the attack damaged a fuel-reception building metres away from where large amounts of nuclear material are stored.
No spike in radiation was recorded, and Ukraine’s state atomic agency Energoatom said spent fuel was not stored in the building at the time of the strike. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi described the incident as “deeply concerning”.
Elsewhere, a Russian drone strike killed three people waiting at a bus stop in Balabyne, Zaporizhzhia region, on Sunday. Another person was wounded. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian attack killed one man and injured a woman in Russia’s Kursk region, according to local Governor Alexander Khinshtein.
The developments came as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hosted Zelensky and the leaders of France and Germany for talks on ongoing support for Kyiv. The meeting followed a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on St Petersburg, which injured three people and embarrassed Putin’s efforts to portray the conflict as distant.
With the front line barely moving, both sides have sought an edge through long-range strikes. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha warned that there are “no safe places in Russia” and that the intensity of attacks “will continue to grow”.
