Overview
- President Volodymyr Zelensky marked the 40th year since the 1986 Chernobyl explosion by accusing Russia of nuclear terrorism and urging the world to stop it.
- He said Russian drones often fly over the Chernobyl exclusion zone and noted that one crashed into the site’s protective shelter last year.
- Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said Moscow uses nuclear facilities as leverage and tied that behavior to Soviet-era secrecy around the original disaster.
- Russia, which seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in 2022, counters that Ukrainian drones strike near nuclear sites to provoke a radiological incident.
- Memorials in places such as Slavutych and Berisso honored victims, while speakers warned the reactor remains under a massive shelter with uncertain conditions below.