KYIV/LONDON: Russian forces deliberately struck a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel near Ukraine’s Chornobyl power plant, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday, in an “extremely vile” attack that did not lead to a spike in radiation.

The strike significantly damaged a fuel-reception building metres away from where “large amounts of nuclear material” is stored, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which said it had been briefed by Ukraine.

Kyiv’s state atomic agency Energoatom said no spent fuel had been stored in the building at the time of the attack. A resulting fire was extinguished, and no injuries were reported.

Russia has not publicly commented on the alleged strike on the facility, which is located around 15 km (9 miles) from the Chornobyl plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.

“An extremely critical infrastructure facility and an extremely vile Russian strike,” Zelenskiy wrote on X, adding that Russia had used a Shahed attack drone.

“As of now, there are no readings exceeding normal background radiation levels. But there is certainly an increase in Russia’s brazenness, which long ago went off the charts.”

In a statement, the IAEA said a team would soon visit the site “to inspect the impact”.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2026