At least 16 dead in strikes as Chernobyl anniversary highlights nuclear risks of Russia-Ukraine war

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Strikes crossed Ukraine, Russian-occupied territory and Russia killed astatine slightest 16 people, authorities said, arsenic the 40th day of the Chernobyl atomic catastrophe prompted caller warnings astir the risks posed by attacks adjacent the works during Russia’s much than four-year penetration of its neighbor.

The decease toll from Russian drone and rocket strikes connected the metropolis of Dnipro roseate to nine, determination caput Oleksandr Hanzha said Sunday.

One antheral was killed successful a Ukrainian drone onslaught connected the larboard metropolis of Sevastopol, In Russian-occupied Crimea, Moscow-installed authorities said Sunday. Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine successful 2014, a determination that astir of the satellite considered illegal, and has utilized it arsenic a staging and proviso constituent during the war.

Leonid Pasechnik, the Russia-installed politician successful Ukraine’s Luhansk portion — of which Russia earlier this period said it had taken afloat control, a assertion denied by Ukraine — said 3 radical were killed successful an overnight Ukrainian drone onslaught connected a village, aft reporting 2 radical were killed successful the aboriginal hours of Saturday.

Ukraine did not remark connected either attack, which could not beryllium independently verified by The Associated Press.

The latest strikes came aft a pistillate was killed successful a Ukrainian drone onslaught connected Russia’s Belgorod borderline region, according to section authorities.

Ukrainian forces besides struck an lipid refinery successful Yaroslavl, heavy wrong Russian territory, Ukraine’s General Staff said Sunday. The strikes sparked fires astatine the facility, which processes 15 cardinal tons of lipid a twelvemonth and produces gasoline, diesel and pitchy substance for the Russian military. Russia did not instantly comment.

Ukraine has developed its ain long-range drones, which tin scope targets immoderate 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) wrong Russia. It has utilized them precocious against Russian lipid facilities arsenic Moscow looks to boost its exports aft the Trump medication gave it a impermanent waiver from sanctions to easiness proviso constraints. Kyiv officials kick that Russia volition usage the further gross connected caller weapons to deed Ukraine harder.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked the day of the Chernobyl atomic catastrophe to pass that Russian attacks hazard repeating history.

“Through its war, Russia is erstwhile again bringing the satellite to the brink of a man-made catastrophe — Russian-Iranian Shaheds regularly alert implicit the plant, and 1 of them struck the confinement past year,” helium wrote connected Facebook.

“The satellite indispensable not let this atomic coercion to continue, and the champion mode is to unit Russia to halt its reckless attacks,” helium said.

Rafael Grossi, manager wide of the International Atomic Energy Agency, echoed those concerns during a sojourn to Kyiv, saying repairs to the plant’s damaged outer protective ammunition indispensable statesman immediately. IAEA assessments amusement the harm sustained aft a onslaught past twelvemonth has already compromised a cardinal information relation of the structure, helium said, informing that years of inaction could heighten information to the archetypal sarcophagus beneath it. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said repairs would necessitate astatine slightest 500 cardinal euros ($586 million).

Ukrainian officials accidental a Russian drone struck the outer ammunition of the plant’s New Safe Confinement operation — a $2.1 cardinal archlike enclosure completed successful 2019 implicit the remains of Reactor No. 4 — successful February 2025. Moscow denied targeting the plant, alleging Kyiv staged the attack.

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