Ukrainian services are battling a fire in the zone surrounding the inactive nuclear power plant in Chernobyl. More than 1,100 hectares of forest are engulfed in flames, which broke out as a result of a Russian kamikaze drone attack.
A massive fire is being extinguished in the closed zone around the inactive nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, already covering over 1,100 hectares of forest, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported on Friday.
According to the administration of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, the fire started after an attack by Russian Geran-2 kamikaze drones.
“The remains of two unmanned aerial vehicles were found at the site of the fire”, reads a Facebook post by the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management. The statement noted that the drone wreckage no longer posed a threat.
Firefighting efforts are being hampered by weather conditions that have led to drought, as well as the risk of mines in parts of the affected area. “In some forest sectors, work has been temporarily suspended due to unexploded ordnance”, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine emphasized.
Units of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine equipped with specialized equipment, along with other services, are taking part in the operation, the statement added.
It is safe
Ukrainian state institutions have not reported any changes in radiation levels so far.
A similar statement was issued by the Polish National Atomic Energy Agency, which stressed that it had not recorded any alarming readings from its monitoring equipment.
The Chernobyl disaster occurred on April 26, 1986. The explosion of the plant’s fourth reactor led to contamination of parts of Ukraine and Belarus. Radioactive substances also spread over Scandinavia, Central Europe – including Poland – as well as to the south of the continent, reaching Greece and Italy. A ban on human settlement remains in force in the area around Chernobyl to this day.