The president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has highlighted the need to repair at least €500m ($585m) of damage caused last year to the Chornobyl New Safe Confinement by a Russian drone attack.

Odile Renaud-Basso’s intervention came a few days before Sunday’s 40th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear accident in 1986 in the former Soviet Union, now Ukraine.

“I take the opportunity to call on the international community to step up and help restore nuclear safety to the levels preceding this reckless attack,” Renaud-Basso said.

She added: “The challenge before us is significant, but so too are our experience, our knowledge, and our capacity to act together. If we respond with the same spirit of cooperation that united us in the past, Chornobyl can again stand as a testament not to tragedy alone, but to responsibility, resilience, and hope.”