Reporter’s notebook: Inside Ukraine’s nuclear plants at war

Forty years after Moscow tried to cover up the Chornobyl disaster, Russia is again pushing Ukraine to the brink of nuclear catastrophe. Rivne Nuclear Power Plant in Rivne Oblast, Ukraine, on Apr.10, 2026. (Alona Malashyna / The Kyiv Independent) Prefer on Google by Dominic Culverwell Walking around a nuclear power plant in north-western Ukraine, it feels like there are as many soldiers as there are plant workers. The guns are an unnerving sight, but not unexpected — the border with Belarus is just 65 kilometers away. At the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, employees at the Rivne nuclear power plan t prepared for occupation, as Russian troops entering from Belarus swiftly captured the Chornobyl plant. Then, days later, the Russians did something even more egregious — they forcefully took over Europe’s largest active nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia Oblast . No army had ever captured a nuclear plant during a war. Iodine sales spiked as shocked Ukrainians braced for a nuclear disaster. The memory of the 1986 Chornobyl meltdown is etched into the nation, just as contamination is embedded into the exclusion zone around the plant — an area the size of London and New York combined. At the Rivne plant, fears of occupation have subsided — for now. Employees are still prepared for the worst-case scenario and have modified safety drills to incorporate missile and drone attacks in addition to natural and technical disasters. The plant looks like a fortress. On the outskirts of the satellite town of Varash, we were stopped by soldiers at several checkpoints. Minefields guard the entry points to the plant, and dugouts are carved into the ground in the yard. Ihor Vitkovsky, head of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Department at the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant, stands at the facility in Rivne Oblast, Ukraine, on April 10, 2026. (Alona Malashyna/The Kyiv Independent) "Our level of preparedness (against occupation) is now significantly higher than it was at the start of the war," Ihor Vitkovsky, the head of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Department at the Rivne plant, told me after giving a tour of a vast shelter stocked with enough food and water for 80 people for a month. "We live in a time when we must be prepared for such threats. Regardless of the nature of the event, our task is to protect personnel, the environment, and the people who live and work here,” he added. April 26 will be 40 years since the Chornobyl disaster. Four decades on, Russia's invasion has once again brought Ukraine back to the brink of Cold War-era nuclear dread. In addition to Chornobyl and the plant in Zaporizhzhia Oblast , which has been in shut-down mode since it was occupied, Ukraine's three operational plants — Rivne, South Ukraine, and Khmelnytskyi — have all been impacted either by Russian strikes on or around the plants and cascading shutdowns caused by Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, according to Dixi Group, a Ukrainian energy think tank. A Russian soldier stands outside the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine, on May 1, 2022. (Andrey Borodulin / AFP via Getty Images) Moscow has compromised Ukraine’s nuclear safety more than 127 times in four years, mostly at the Zaporizhzhia plant, Dixi Group said. In total, Russia has struck or shelled nuclear plants either directly or within the vicinity 25 times since 2022, and cut power lines connected to plants 23 times, according to the group. Aside from occupying the Zaporizhzhia plant, a Russian drone severely damaged the Chornobyl New Safe Confinement last year. Experts warn there are fewer than four years left to fix it. Paradoxically, nuclear energy has also been Ukraine’s lifeline since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion. Three working plants generate more than 60% of Ukraine’s power. Without nuclear energy, the country would be in darkness. Energoatom , the country’s state-owned nuclear firm, plans to keep building up Ukraine’s nuclear capabilities with its Western allies. Ukraine has completely shed its dependency on Russia by switching all its Soviet-era reactors from Russian to American fuel. The Rivne plant was the first to complete the transition in 2023. And this year, American giant Westinghouse confirmed plans to develop a fuel assembly plant in Ukraine. Energoatom workers at the Unit Control Panel of the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant in Rivne Oblast, Ukraine, on April 10, 2026. (Alona Malashyna / The Kyiv Independent) "In addition, Westinghouse, together with Ukrainian specialists, is working on improving fuel efficiency and extending the fuel cycle from 12 to 18 months. This will enable greater electricity generation and, undoubtedly, increase the overall efficiency of nuclear power plants," acting CEO of Energoatom Pavlo Kovtoniuk told reporters from the plant’s main control room — the heart of the plant. The nuclear power plant, along with the other three operational plants in Ukraine, is also currently undergoing scheduled maintenance, upgrades, and modernization to various safety, control, and computer systems that will boost its power generation come winter, Kovtoniuk added. But while the future looks bright for Ukraine’s nuclear plants, the country still has to contend with the dangerous reality Russia has created. In Chornobyl, a two-and-a-half-hour drive north of Kyiv, Ukraine and its partners are racing to repair the damaged New Safe Confinement after the Russian drone strike last year accelerated corrosion. Built to contain radioactive material for 100 years, the 1.5 billion euro ($1.8 billion) structure needs to be fully restored by 2030 before the damage becomes irreversible and renders it defunct. "It’s not a lot of time for the very, very complex repair work," Balthasar Lindauer, director of the Nuclear Safety Department at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which handles the Shelter Implementation Plan and the building of the New Safe Confinement, told me in early April. Inside the New Safe Confinement, rainwater drips onto the cement floor through the punctures in the 108-meter-tall ceiling. Before the attack, that never happened, Artur Ovsepian, a communications officer at the Chornobyl power plant, told reporters on a guided tour on April 23. The New Safe Confinement over the fourth power unit of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant is seen in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, on Aug. 31, 2024. (Karina Piliuhina/ The Kyiv Independent) Just a few steps away from the puddles of water is the destroyed remains of Reactor 4, along with 200 metric tons of radioactive material, all entombed by the Soviet-era sarcophagus — the hastily built predecessor to the New Safe Confinement, which was completed in 2016. The repairs will cost 500 million euros ($585 million) — money the EBRD is seeking from foreign partners. So far, the only repairs have been done by a Ukrainian team that patched up the 15-meter-wide hole created by the drone. But damage extends beyond a single hole. The drone strike caused a fire to burn for several weeks, torching parts of the membrane and insulation. Firefighters had to cut more than 300 holes to extinguish the blaze. The problem is that parts of the repair site are so radioactive that workers can only do short stints there— just a couple of days at a time before they have to leave. That means there needs to be a big repair team — something a depopulated Ukraine can’t provide due to a labor shortage . And foreign partners are unlikely to send workers while war is ongoing, said Lindauer. That doesn’t mean Ukraine is at risk of the same level of radiation that affected millions across the Soviet Union 40 years ago. But a defunct confinement prevents the safe dismantling and removal of contaminated parts, exposing the site to the elements and risking the spread of contaminated dust. "We would be going back to an uncontrolled situation. With the New Safe Confinement operational, the site can be safely managed," said Lindauer. But the more frightening situation is in the south, at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which Russian troops have illegally and dangerously occupied for more than four years. During that time, Russia disconnected the plant from Ukraine’s grid, hauled in military equipment, and detained and tortured Energoatom workers. It’s not just fighting near the plant that poses a risk. Following the occupation, only a handful of licensed nuclear specialists remain — the only people authorized to operate the plant’s six reactors, which before the war provided more than a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity. Kovtoniuk describes Russia's occupation of the Zaporizhzhia plant as the "greatest threat" not just to Ukraine, but to the entire world. "Nearly all safety principles established by the International Atomic Energy Agency have been violated at the Zaporizhzhia plant. I could list them, but it would take considerable time." Hi, it’s Dominic, thank you for reading this story. The longer Russia continues to occupy and invade Ukraine, the greater the risk of a nuclear disaster that will be felt beyond Ukraine's borders . It's terrifying.  I hope this article raises awareness at just how precarious the situation is here. But  I also want to show how well prepared Ukraine's nuclear workers are. God forbid something like this happens in another country, Ukraine would be able to advise on how best to protect nuclear facilities during a war. To help us keep bringing you stories like this , please consider joining our community for as little as a cup of coffee a month. Dominic is the business reporter for the Kyiv Independent, reporting on Ukrainian companies, investment, energy, corruption, and reforms. Based in Kyiv, Dominic joined the Kyiv Independent team in 2023, having previously worked as a freelancer. He has written articles for a number of publications, including the Financial Times, bne IntelliNews, Radio Free Europe/Liberty, Euronews and New Eastern Europe. Previously, Dominic worked with StopFake as a disinformation expert, debunking Russian fake news in Europe.