The commemoration comes as Kyiv accuses Moscow of repeatedly sending missiles and drones along flight paths near the former Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant while attacking Ukrainian cities, including a February 2025 drone strike that damaged the plant’s protective confinement structure.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said the original 1986 catastrophe was caused by a reactor experiment ordered by Soviet authorities in Moscow in violation of safety rules and followed by concealment of the scale of the disaster.

“The Chernobyl disaster was the result of a reactor experiment ordered by Moscow, in violation of safety protocols, and followed by lies and cover-ups,” the ministry said in a statement this week.

Millions of people across Europe were exposed to radiation after reactor four exploded during a late-night safety test on April 26, 1986, sending radioactive material across large parts of the continent.

Hundreds of thousands were evacuated, while vast agricultural and residential areas were rendered unsafe for habitation.Thousands later developed radiation-related illnesses, including cancer, though the total death toll remains disputed among researchers and international agencies.

A major international engineering effort led to the installation in 2016 of a vast steel and concrete confinement arch over the original sarcophagus hastily built after the explosion to contain radioactive debris.

That structure, designed to prevent further contamination, was punctured during a Russian drone strike in February 2025, Ukrainian officials said.

While no radiation leaks were detected, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development estimates repairs will require at least 500 million euros to prevent lasting damage.

Earlier this week, Ukraine’s top state prosecutor told that radar systems had detected at least 92 Russian drones flying within five kilometers of the protective shield since June 2024, raising renewed international concern over the safety of the site.

Russia has denied accusations of deliberately endangering nuclear facilities during the war, while previous disputes over attacks near energy infrastructure have intensified fears of a broader nuclear emergency.

Located about 100 kilometers north of Kyiv, the plant remains inside a 2,600-square-kilometer exclusion zone established after the disaster. Around 2,250 employees continue to work in rotating shifts to oversee the long-term decommissioning of the site.

The plant’s final operational reactor was shut down in 2000.The control room of reactor four now stands dark and rusted, filled with damaged Soviet-era machinery left as a reminder of the explosion.Outside, wildlife including moose and wild horses roam through the abandoned forests and the nearby ghost city of Pripyat, where nature has reclaimed neighborhoods once evacuated in haste.

Security concerns continue to shape official remembrance ceremonies in wartime Ukraine, with authorities typically withholding details of commemorations in advance to reduce risks from missile and drone attacks.

For many Ukrainians, the anniversary now serves not only as a memorial to a Soviet-era catastrophe, but also as a warning of how war can once again place Europe’s nuclear safety at risk.

Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark and Poland have all said Russian drones or fighter jets have violated their airspace in recent weeks, prompting the NATO alliance to beef up defence around Europe’s eastern flank.

“Within the scope of NATO Assurance Measures, our Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft is carrying out missions in Lithuanian airspace between September 22-25,” the ministry said in its weekly press statement.

AWACS are capable of detecting low-flying drones and other objects that ground radars miss.

The ministry provided no further information.

Poland has shot down some of the drones, and Lithuania’s parliament on Tuesday granted the armed forces powers to shoot down any unmanned drone violating its airspace.

Western officials say Russia is carrying out the airspace violations to test NATO’s readiness and resolve. Estonia and Poland have asked the alliance to open consultations under Article 4 of the NATO treaty.

Article 4 says members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territory, political independence or security of any of them is threatened.

Turkey, NATO’s second largest army, has strong ties with Russia in areas including energy and tourism. It has condemned Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and provided Kyiv with military support, but refrained from joining Western sanctions against Russia as part of a balancing act that it says helps it talk to both sides.