In a chilling escalation of the ongoing war in Ukraine, Russian drone strikes have once again thrust the world’s attention onto the precarious safety of nuclear facilities in a conflict zone. On October 1, 2025, more than 20 Shahed drones targeted the town of Slavutych, the city that provides power to the infamous Chernobyl nuclear disaster site, resulting in a blackout that lasted over three hours. The attack severed power lines to the decommissioned Chernobyl plant, a place forever etched in history as the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident nearly four decades ago.
According to Ukraine’s energy ministry, the Russian drone strikes disrupted electricity to the new safe confinement structure over reactor 4—the very heart of the 1986 catastrophe. This structure, sometimes called the sarcophagus, is essential for containing radioactive dust and preventing further release of hazardous material. For several hours, the blackout also left a containment unit designed to reduce contamination risks without external power, raising alarm bells across the international nuclear safety community.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy didn’t mince words in his response. He accused Russia of “deliberately creating the threat of radiation incidents” and lambasted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its chief, Rafael Mariano Grossi, for what he described as a lackluster reaction. “Every day of Russia’s war, every strike on our energy facilities, including those connected to nuclear safety, is a global threat,” Zelenskyy declared, as reported by The Associated Press. He added, “Weak and half-measures will not work. Strong action is needed.”
While the IAEA acknowledged “fluctuations” in power at Chernobyl after the attack, it emphasized that safety systems remained functional and that power was eventually restored via alternative lines. Nevertheless, the incident exposed just how easily the balance of nuclear safety can tip in a war zone. “A blackout could blind radiation monitoring systems installed to boost security at Chernobyl and operated by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency,” noted The Independent, highlighting the global implications of any such disruption.
The blackout at Chernobyl is not an isolated event. In recent weeks, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant—Europe’s largest and among the ten biggest in the world—has been operating on emergency diesel generators after being disconnected from the grid. Both Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia, though not currently producing power, require a constant supply of electricity to keep crucial cooling systems for spent fuel rods running. Without this, the risk of a nuclear incident looms large.
Ukraine’s energy ministry warned that “no nuclear power plant in the world has ever operated under such conditions, and it is impossible to make any reliable forecasts.” Nuclear safety experts echoed these concerns, with The Washington Times reporting that Zaporizhzhia’s situation is “extremely fragile and increasingly dire,” as no nuclear plant is designed to function safely for extended periods without stable off-site power.
President Zelenskyy also criticized Russia for its inaction at Zaporizhzhia, claiming that external power had been cut and Russia had “done absolutely nothing” to repair it. The facility has been forced to rely on emergency generators for days, a situation that experts warn cannot be sustained indefinitely without increasing the risk of an accident.
Russia, for its part, has denied responsibility for the attacks on nuclear infrastructure. President Vladimir Putin called Ukrainian claims that Russia had shelled power lines around Zaporizhzhia “nonsense.” He turned the accusation back on Kyiv, stating, “Are we striking ourselves?” and warned ominously that Russia could respond in kind: “People on the other side must understand that if they continue this dangerous game, they also have functioning nuclear power plants. What would prevent us from responding in kind? Let them think about it.”
The drone strike on Slavutych, which overwhelmed local defenses, was part of a larger Russian campaign targeting Ukraine’s power grid and energy infrastructure. In what officials described as the biggest attack of the war so far, Russia fired 381 drones and 35 missiles at Ukraine’s gas extraction and processing facilities, particularly those operated by the state-owned Naftogaz Group. Serhii Koretskyi, chief executive of Naftogaz, described the assault as “deliberate terror against civilian facilities that provide gas extraction and processing for the normal life of people.” He continued, “It has no military purpose. This is yet another act of Russian malice aimed solely at disrupting the heating season and depriving Ukrainians of warmth in winter.”
The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War has suggested that Russia’s ultimate objective may be to integrate the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant into the Russian grid—a move that would further complicate the security situation and increase risks not only for Ukraine but for the broader region. Analysts and international observers warn that attacks targeting nuclear infrastructure in a war zone represent an escalation with the potential for global consequences. As The Washington Times put it, “Even brief outages or system stress may carry outsized risks.”
Against this tense backdrop, there has been at least one moment of relief: on October 2, 2025, Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war. President Zelenskyy announced that 185 military personnel—most of whom had been in Russian captivity since 2022—and 20 civilians were returned home. Russia’s defense ministry reported a similar number of its soldiers and civilians returned. Since the start of the war, more than 7,000 Ukrainians have made it back from captivity, according to Zelenskyy.
As winter approaches and the war grinds on with no end in sight, the fate of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities remains a source of deep anxiety for officials and ordinary people alike. The IAEA continues to monitor the situation closely, but the events of early October have made one thing clear: the intersection of war and nuclear technology is a perilous place, and the world is watching nervously to see what happens next.
The blackout at Chernobyl and the ongoing crisis at Zaporizhzhia are stark reminders of how quickly the unimaginable can become reality when nuclear safety is threatened in a conflict zone. As the international community weighs its next steps, the need for robust protection of critical infrastructure has never been more urgent.
