A Russian Shahed drone has substantially damaged a building used to store spent nuclear fuel close to the disused Chornobyl nuclear power plant in what Ukraine’s president described as a deliberate and “extremely vile” attack.

While the structure – the reception building of the spent fuel storage facility – was empty of containers at the time, the targeting of the sensitive site appeared to be direct messaging from Moscow amid an intensifying battle of long-range aerial strikes that has seen high-profile locations hit on both sides.

“As of now, there is no heightening of radiation safety limits. But there is clearly an heightening of Russia’s already sky-high arrogance,” said Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, after the attack, which took place at around 2am on Sunday morning.

“It was [a] critical infrastructure facility. And an extremely vile Russian attack.”

Zelenskyy made his comments as he prepared to meet Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Friedrich Merz on Sunday at a summit in London to discuss the continuing conflict.

“This is not the first time Russian forces are putting Ukrainian nuclear facilities at risk,” Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister, added on X. “Russia’s nuclear blackmail and threats to nuclear safety are systemic, deliberate, and unacceptable.”

The spent fuel storage facility is located around nine miles from the Chornobyl plant that saw an explosion and meltdown during the 1986 disaster – the world’s worst nuclear accident.

A fire covering about 40 sq meters broke out after the strike and was later extinguished. No personnel were injured. Energoatom, the state nuclear power operator, said radiation levels at the site remained within normal limits.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which said its experts were preparing to visit the site, also said in a statement that, although the strike had caused significant damage, radiation levels at the site remained within established levels.

The centralized spent nuclear fuel storage facility is designed to provide long-term storage for spent nuclear fuel from Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.

The attack followed a long-range Ukrainian strike on the historic naval town of Kronstadt near St Petersburg the previous day, as the city’s high profile economic forum was winding up.

It came as Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday its air defences had downed 500 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours, Interfax news agency reported.

That in turn followed recent large scale attacks by Moscow on Ukraine, as the Kremlin threatened to escalate systematic attacks on key sites including decision-making centres in Ukraine.

Russia has not publicly commented on the alleged attack on the facility.

In February 2025, a Russian attack drone damaged a containment arch over the Chornobyl reactor that was destroyed in the 1986 explosion and meltdown. Russia denied responsibility.

“The strike on a nuclear infrastructure facility has once again shown the world the true face of the Kremlin regime, which deliberately poses threats to nuclear and radiation safety,” Energoatom said.

Kyiv and Moscow have also traded accusations of attacking the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in south-eastern Ukraine, Europe’s largest.