Zelenskyy warns that Russian drones endanger Chernobyl and other nuclear plants in Ukraine

According to AP, Russia’s sustained bombardment of Ukraine’s power grid is deepening concerns about the safety of the country’s nuclear facilities after a drone knocked out power for more than three hours to the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in northern Ukraine, officials said Thursday.

The drone strike adds to concerns raised more than a week ago when the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine became disconnected from the power grid following attacks that each side has blamed on the other.

Both Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia are not currently operational, but they require a constant power supply to run crucial cooling systems for spent fuel rods in order to avoid a potential nuclear incident.

A blackout also could blind radiation monitoring systems installed to boost security at Chernobyl and operated by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency.

“Russia is deliberately creating the threat of radiation incidents,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Wednesday, criticizing the U.N. nuclear watchdog and its chief Rafael Mariano Grossi for what he described as weak responses to the danger.

“Every day of Russia’s war, every strike on our energy facilities, including those connected to nuclear safety, is a global threat,” he said. “Weak and half-measures will not work. Strong action is needed.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected Ukrainian claims that Russia has been shelling the power lines around the Zaporizhzhia plant as “nonsense” and blamed Ukraine for attacking the Moscow-controlled plant, warning that Russia could respond in kind.

The war that followed Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor more than three years ago appears no closer to ending, despite months of U.S.-led peace efforts.