Britain to provide £17 million for repairs to damaged Chernobyl sarcophagus

Britain will provide £17 million (490 million crowns) to repair the sarcophagus at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which was damaged in an attack last year. The British government said today. Ukraine and Britain blame Russia for the drone attack that damaged the plant’s protective shield, but Moscow denied responsibility, saying it does not attack nuclear infrastructure.

The British government will release the funds as part of an international programme to restore the sarcophagus. The programme is coordinated by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which previously estimated the repair costs at €500 million (more than CZK 12 billion). Without repairs, the protective shell could be at risk of corrosion. It is designed to prevent radiation from escaping.

According to Ukrainian authorities, a Russian drone breached the sarcophagus in an attack last February. It isolates the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which exploded in April 1986. Thousands of residents in the area around the plant had to be evacuated, and a cloud of radiation spread across practically all of Europe.

Russian forces occupied the Chernobyl nuclear plant site for about a month at the start of the invasion in February 2022. The plant is less than ten kilometres from the border with Belarus and about 100 kilometres from Kyiv.

The funds are part of the support Britain has provided to Ukraine in response to military aggression. The total value of British support for Ukraine stands at £25 billion. Britain has also imposed sanctions on around 3,500 people, entities and ships linked to Russia.