Ukraine marks 40th anniversary of Chornobyl disaster under cloud of war

Ukraine is commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster on Sunday amid lingering fears that Russia's four-year-old war could spark a repeat of the world's worst nuclear disaster.

Kyiv says Moscow has repeatedly sent missiles and drones on a flight path near the plant to attack Ukrainian cities, even damaging a critical protective shield in an attack last year.

Marking the disaster - which spewed radioactive material across much of Europe despite efforts by Soviet authorities to hide the scale - has taken on sharp new meaning during Russia's invasion of its smaller neighbour.

"The Chornobyl disaster was the result of a reactor experiment ordered by Moscow, in violation of safety protocols, and followed by lies and cover-ups," Ukraine's foreign ministry said in a statement this week.

"To this day, the world has to face consequences brought by a totalitarian system that subordinated truth and science to ideology and political power."

Long-lasting consequences

Millions were exposed to radiation, hundreds of thousands forced to flee, and wide swathes of land contaminated after the accidental explosion and resulting meltdown inside reactor four at the Soviet-built plant in the early hours of 26 April 1986.

Thousands have since succumbed to radiation-related illnesses such as cancer, although the total death toll and long-term health effects remain a subject of intense debate.

A vast international effort saw the installation of a massive steel and concrete arc in 2016 to shield the original sarcophagus hurriedly built in 1986 to cover tons of radioactive debris.

However, a February 2025 Russian drone strike punctured its hermetic seal, officials said. No leaks were detected, but the arc needs at least 500 million euros worth of repairs to prevent permanent damage, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Earlier this week, Kyiv's top state prosecutor told Reuters that Ukrainian radars had detected at least 92 Russian drones that had flown within a five-km (3-mile) radius of the shield since June 2024.

Details of official ceremonies in wartime Ukraine are typically not published in advance for security purposes.

Eerie calm

Some 100 km north of Kyiv and circled by a 2,600-sq km exclusion zone, the plant - which Reuters visited on Wednesday - is shrouded in an eerie calm stretching across the vast woodlands around it.

National Guardsmen patrol the facility, where around 2,250 employees work in days-long shifts overseeing its gradual decommissioning. The plant's last reactor was shut down in 2000.

The control room for reactor four is now a darkened space of mangled and rusted Soviet-era equipment.

Moose and wild horses roam the area around the plant and the nearby abandoned city of Prypiat, in a sign of how nature has taken over in the absence of humans.