Participants dressed in white hazmat suits, place candles in front of a memorial for Chernobyl victims, during a commemoration ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the town of Slavutych on April 26, 2026. GENYA SAVILOV / AFP
President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of "nuclear terrorism" on Sunday, April 26, as Ukraine marked the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster amid deadly new drone attacks. Three people were killed across Ukraine after Moscow launched more than a hundred drones overnight, one of the relentless barrages the country has faced almost nightly since the beginning of the war in 2022.
In a social media post marking the Chernobyl anniversary, Zelensky said Russia, through its invasion, was "again bringing the world to the brink of a man-made disaster." He highlighted how Russian drones regularly pass over Chernobyl and that one had hit its protective shell last year. "The world must not allow this nuclear terrorism to continue, and the best way is to force Russia to stop its reckless attacks," he added.
The 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was the worst civilian nuclear disaster in history and changed global perceptions of nuclear energy. Thousands are estimated to have died as a result of exposure to the radiation, though assessments of the precise human toll vary. Some 600,000 people involved in the clean-up operation – known as "liquidators" – were exposed to high levels of radiation.
