A Russian Shahed drone, armed with a high-explosive warhead, struck the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on Friday, February 14 at 1:59 am local time, piercing the new arch-shaped containment structure protecting reactor no. 4, the reactor that was responsible for the world's biggest civil nuclear disaster, in 1986. The impact triggered a fire and compromised the integrity of the shelter, which was built in 2016 to contain the reactor's radioactivity.

People at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant felt they had managed to avoid the worst. "It's a good thing we didn't start dismantling the sarcophagus [built in 1986], otherwise the consequences of the radiation would have been very different," confided an employee at the site, who asked to remain anonymous, speaking to Le Monde. Called the "New Safe Confinement" (NSC), the containment structure the drone struck "was erected in order to begin dismantling the sarcophagus, which has many structures that have not been repaired. There is corrosion and other risks," explained the source on Chernobyl's staff. "This work is planned. As soon as the sarcophagus' top is removed, radiation levels under the containment arch will immediately rise. The work has now been postponed indefinitely."

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