Russian strikes kill five, damage Chernobyl fuel storage facility

KYIV: Russia launched waves of drones and other weapons at Ukraine on Sunday, killing at least five people and damaging a spent fuel storage site in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, according to Ukrainian officials.

Ukraine's state nuclear energy operator Energoatom said radiation levels at the facility stayed within normal limits after the strike, but the fuel reception building was partially destroyed. President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X that a Shahed drone had hit one of the buildings at the Centralized Spent Fuel Storage Facility.

"A 'shahed' hit one of the buildings of the Centralized Spent Fuel Storage Facility,"

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was sending a team to examine the damage and described the incident as deeply concerning.

Elsewhere, a Russian attack on a public transport stop in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region killed at least two people, authorities said. In a separate nearby drone strike, a 56-year-old minibus driver was killed, according to officials.

In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, separate Russian attacks killed two men, governor Oleksandr Ganzha said in a post on Telegram.

The latest strikes came as drone attacks between Russia and Ukraine have intensified in recent months. US-led efforts to secure an end to the war, now in its fifth year, have remained stalled and have also been overshadowed by the conflict in the Middle East.

Zelensky arrived in Britain on Sunday for talks with allies on ways to increase pressure on Russia to stop the fighting. His trip came after Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected direct peace talks with the Ukrainian leader.