President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared this photo of the damage on the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant after it was struck by a drone on February 14, 2025.@ZelenskyyUa, X
Adi Roche, the founder and voluntary CEO of Chernobyl Children International, has responded after the building in Ukraine that confines the remains of the reactor destroyed in the 1986 Chernobyl accident was struck by a drone early on Friday, February 14.
Ukraine claims the strike was a "Russian drone attack," but Russia has denied involvement.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, shared this footage of the strike on Friday:
Last night, a Russian attack drone with a high-explosive warhead struck the shelter protecting the world from radiation at the destroyed 4th power unit of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
This shelter was built by Ukraine together with other countries of Europe and the world,… pic.twitter.com/mLTGeDYgPT
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 14, 2025
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the international centre for cooperation in the nuclear field, confirmed the incident on Friday, saying its on-site team heard the explosion at 1:50 am local time. This was followed by smoke and associated fire visible from their dormitory rooms.
The IAEA said the drone struck the New Safe Confinement (NSC), a large structure built to prevent any radioactive release from the damaged reactor unit 4 and to protect it from any external hazard.
The IAEA said on Friday it was informed that radiation levels inside and outside the NSC building remain normal and stable and there were no reports of casualties.
Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said on Friday it once again demonstrated that nuclear safety remains under constant threat for as long as the conflict continues.
“There is no room for complacency, and the IAEA remains on high alert," Grossi said.
“I once again call for maximum military restraint around Ukraine’s nuclear sites.”
Tipperary native Aid Roche started working on Chernobyl in 1986 in the immediate aftermath of the accident. She formally founded Chernobyl Children International (CCI) in 1991.
Responding on Friday, Roche said in a statement: “Today, we wake up to news that the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant has been attacked and the sarcophagus that is meant to protect humanity is scarred," Roche said in a statement.
She said the "ultra-provocative and unprceddented attack" has "potentially scuppered" potential peace talks and ceasefire in Ukraine.
"It undermines and is contrary to everything that we have been trying to achieve," she said.
Roche appealed "on behalf of all humanity" that the "deadly and toxic" Chernoby Nuclear Power Plant "no longer be targeted, or used as an area of shelling, bombardment, and ground fighting under the Hague Convention."
She continued: "My worst nightmare in this conflict is that the tragedy of the Chernobyl disaster could be re-released on the world.
"I fear that this area, a sacred area, an area of utter vulnerability and danger, a special area of human tragedy, could once again, have deadly radioactive contamination released which would spread everywhere, like a great and uncontrollable monster."
Roche said that the Russia - Ukraine war has "changed everything," adding: "Never before in the history of the atomic age have nuclear stations been used as weapons of war.
"They should remain globally ‘off limits’ because of their lethal potential to destroy the planet.
"The weaponising nuclear facilities has resulted in a collision between warfare and nuclear power, which is a whole new threat with potentially devastating, unimaginable consequences for humankind for centuries to come.
"This is nuclear terrorism.
"We neglect Chernobyl at our peril."
She continued: "This weaponising of nuclear power signifies to the world that the nature of modern warfare has changed forever, and brings with it a sense of foreboding for wars of the future.
"We are playing Russian Roulette and our luck is about to run out. We are staring down a barrel of a loaded gun. Any potential explosion or meltdown at Chernobyl, or any other Nuclear Power Plant, by accident or design would cause irreversible damage to the environment and human life that will last for thousands of years.
"Chernobyl has vast silos of nuclear waste and water, which are highly dangerous and volatile. Along with hundreds of shallow ‘nuclear graves’, which are scattered throughout the Exclusion Zone, holding the contents of thousands of houses, machinery, buses and trucks, all of which have been buried there to keep the radiation underground.
"In the name of humanity, in the name of the children, please stop this war and declare the Chernobyl and all Nuclear Power Plants as ‘No War Zones.'"