Strikes Kill 16 in Ukraine and Russia as Zelenskyy Warns of Nuclear Threat to Chernobyl

At least 16 people were killed in drone and missile strikes across Ukraine, Russian-occupied territory, and Russia over the weekend, according to local authorities, as the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster intensified concerns about the risks of military attacks near the nuclear facility during Russia's ongoing invasion.

The death toll from Russian strikes on the city of Dnipro alone rose to nine, according to regional head Oleksandr Hanzha. The weekend attacks came as Ukrainian officials and international observers warned of escalating dangers to one of Europe's most sensitive nuclear sites amid the more than four-year conflict.

Concerns about Chernobyl's safety have become acute following documented attacks on the facility. Ukrainian officials reported that a Russian drone struck the outer shell of the plant's New Safe Confinement structure—a $2.1 billion protective enclosure completed in 2019 over the remains of Reactor No. 4—in February 2025. Moscow has denied intentionally targeting the plant, instead alleging that Kyiv staged the incident. The accusations underscore the deep mistrust between the two nations over responsibility for military operations near the nuclear complex.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used the Chernobyl anniversary as an occasion to sound an alarm about the broader nuclear threat posed by the war. "Through its war, Russia is once again bringing the world to the brink of a man-made disaster — Russian-Iranian Shaheds regularly fly over the plant, and one of them struck the confinement last year," Zelenskyy wrote on Facebook, characterizing the situation as nuclear terrorism and warning that Russian attacks risk repeating the catastrophic history of 1986.

The convergence of active military operations with the presence of a damaged nuclear reactor has created what international observers view as an unprecedented peacetime nuclear safety crisis, with the potential consequences extending far beyond Ukraine's borders.