Energy ministry says funds will address damage and maintain site safety during wartime.
Ukraine’s government has allocated more than UAH 1.6bn ($37m, €31.4m) from the state budget for work to improve safety at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant’s new confinement structure, the energy ministry said.
The funding will be directed to works on the shelter covering the destroyed fourth reactor unit, including measures to address the consequences of what the ministry described as a Russian attack on the site.
The ministry said that despite wartime conditions, Ukraine will continue efforts to maintain the three shut down units at Chernobyl, located near the country’s border with Belarus, as well as the spent nuclear fuel storage facility and radioactive waste storage installations, in a safe condition.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has previously reported that a drone strike in February 2025 damaged part of the outer cladding of the New Safe Confinement, the large arch structure installed over the original 1986 sarcophagus to prevent radioactive releases.
IAEA director general Rafael Grossi said at the time that while there was no immediate radiological impact, the incident underscored continuing nuclear safety risks posed by the conflict.
The €1.5bn New Safe Confinement, financed through an international fund managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, was completed in 2016 and is designed to enable dismantling of the old shelter and long-term stabilisation of the site.
Ukraine said that global nuclear safety risks could only be fully addressed if “Russia stops attacking Ukrainian nuclear facilities”.
In May 2025, Ukrainian workers conducted temporary repairs on the containment after a drone strike on 14 February pierced a large hole through the roof of the structure.
Reports at the time said it took several weeks to completely extinguish the fires and smouldering caused by the drone strike, which Ukraine and Russia blamed on each other.
