Category World News

A drone strike has damaged a protective shield at the Chornobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine, rendering it unable to contain the radioactive material from the 1986 explosion of the plant, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Friday that the shield can no longer perform its main safety function, following an inspection of the steel structure last week.

The agency found the drone impact had degraded the shield in February, in a strike Ukraine has accused Russia of carrying out, with the two countries’ ongoing conflict now in its fourth year.

Throughout the war, Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of blocking the rotation of staff from the IAEA at the Zaporizhzhia facility and of risking a potentially devastating nuclear disaster by attacking the site.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement that the inspection “mission confirmed that the [protective structure] had lost its primary safety functions, including the confinement capability, but also found that there was no permanent damage to its load-bearing structures or monitoring systems”.

Grossi said repairs had already been carried out “but comprehensive restoration remains essential to prevent further degradation and ensure long-term nuclear safety”.

The UN reported on February 14 that Ukrainian authorities said a drone with a high-explosive warhead struck the plant, caused a fire and damaged the protective cladding around reactor number four, which was destroyed in the 1986 Chornobyl explosion.

Ukrainian authorities said the drone was Russian; however, Moscow denied it had attacked the plant.

Radiation levels remained normal and stable, and there had been no reports of radiation leaks, the UN said in February.

The 1986 Chornobyl explosion sent radiation across Europe and prompted Soviet Union authorities to mobilise vast numbers of men and equipment to deal with the accident. The plant’s last working reactor was closed in 2000.

Russia occupied the plant and the surrounding area for more than a month in the first weeks of its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine as its forces initially tried to advance on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

The IAEA had conducted the inspection at the same time as a country-wide survey of damage to electricity substations by the nearly four-year war between Ukraine and Russia.

Energy sites in Ukraine attacked

Russian drone and missile attacks hit energy infrastructure in eight Ukrainian regions overnight, causing blackouts, according to Ukraine’s Energy Ministry.

“Emergency repair work is already underway where safety conditions permit. Energy companies are doing everything possible to restore power to all customers as quickly as possible,” the ministry said on Saturday in a post on Telegram.

On Friday, Ukraine’s national grid operator, Ukrenergo, announced that electricity restrictions would be in place nationwide from Saturday due to Russian attacks on energy facilities.

The attacks occur as the United States has been meeting with officials of both countries, in an effort to usher in a long-awaited ceasefire. 

US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has been holding talks with Ukraine’s senior negotiator Rustem Umerov in Miami, Florida, after Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier this week.

Last month, the US revealed a 28-point proposal to end the Russia-Ukraine war, seen by many as more favourable to Russia’s maximalist demands and war narrative.

About 3,000 people have taken to the streets of Berlin to protest against Germany’s new military service bill, after Bundestag politicians backed the legislation intended to bolster the country’s armed forces.

Germany’s parliament approved the controversial conscription legislation on Friday after months of heated debate. It comes amid a pledge by NATO allies to increase defence spending, boosting Europe’s defence capabilities amid fears Russia’s war on Ukraine could spill across its borders.

Tess Datzer, an 18-year-old protester in the German capital, said she felt it was unfair for her generation to have to go to war “for a country that does little for us”.

“There is no investment in our pensions, not in our future, not in the climate. I don’t see any good reasons why our generation should have to go to war,” she told the AFP news agency.

Protest organiser Ronja Ruh said an “unbelievable amount of money is being spent on the military and armament” in Germany, while funds are lacking in basic public services.

“When we look at schools in particular, there is outdated technology, far too few teachers, dilapidated school buildings,” she said.

The military service bill sets ambitious expansion goals for the Bundeswehr, as Germany’s armed forces are known, with a target of up to 260,000 active soldiers – up from 183,000 currently – and 200,000 reservists by 2035.

It introduces a dual-track system to boost recruits: a more lucrative voluntary service intended to attract young recruits, but if enlistment falls short, lawmakers can now activate needs-based conscription.

To do so, the politicians would be required to hold a Bundestag vote. If more people are eligible for conscription than needed, recruits may be randomly selected.

All men born after January 1, 2008, will undergo medical evaluation, in a move not seen since Germany suspended conscription in 2011. Both 18-year-old men and women will be asked to declare their willingness to serve, though only men must respond.

Countries across Europe – including France, Italy and Belgium, as well as the Nordic and Baltic states – are moving to expand voluntary service and strengthen mandatory conscription in their armed forces in response to Russian provocation.

European leaders and intelligence services believe Russia could mount an assault elsewhere on the continent, with Germany’s top military official, Carsten Breuer, saying in 2024 that Moscow could be ready to attack NATO countries in five to eight years’ time.

In late November, announcing the reintroduction of a limited form of military service in France 25 years after conscription was formally ended, President Emmanuel Macron said, “the only way to avoid danger is to prepare for it”.

“We need to mobilise, mobilising the nation to defend itself, to be ready and remain respected,” he said.

In the meantime, European leaders have accused Moscow of engaging in a form of hybrid warfare – including infrastructure sabotage, drone infiltrations and cyberattacks – as President Vladimir Putin tests NATO’s limits.

Gaza mediators Egypt and Qatar, and six other Muslim-majority countries have raised the alarm over Israel’s stated plan for a one-way opening of the Rafah border crossing, which would allow Palestinians to leave their territory, but not to return, and block the entry of humanitarian aid.

It comes as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza continues unabated, with some 600 violations of the ceasefire in the last seven weeks.

The foreign ministers of Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates issued a joint statement on Saturday that expressed “deep concern” over a recent military announcement that the “Rafah Crossing will open in the coming days exclusively for the exit of residents from the Gaza Strip to Egypt”.

The announcement, which breaches Israeli obligations under the first phase of a United States-led peace plan, was made on Wednesday by an Israeli military unit called the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), stating that one-way crossing would be allowed with Israeli “security approval” in coordination with Egypt.

However, on Saturday, Egypt and its cosignatories slammed the plan, expressing their “complete rejection of any attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land” and stressing the need for Israel to fully comply with US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan, which calls for the Rafah crossing to be opened in both directions.

Eight Arab and Islamic countries issued a joint statement expressing their deep concern over Israeli statements about opening the Rafah crossing in one direction, allowing Gaza residents to leave for Egypt#MOFAQatar pic.twitter.com/sW3Gg7rd09

The Rafah crossing has been mostly closed throughout the war.

Since the October 10 ceasefire took effect under Trump’s plan, Israeli authorities have stalled on reopening it to allow desperately needed aid to enter and people requiring medical treatment to leave, citing Hamas’s failure to return the bodies of all captives and the need for coordination with Egypt. Only one captive’s body remains in Gaza, and retrieval has been hampered by the widespread destruction of the enclave under Israeli bombardment.

The ministers said they appreciated Trump’s peace efforts, which foresee the formation of a technocratic Palestinian government supported by a multinational stabilisation force under the supervision of an international “Board of Peace”, insisting that his plan move forward “without delay or obstruction”.

They urged that conditions be established allowing the Palestinian Authority to “resume its responsibilities in Gaza”, calling for “sustainable peace” that would enable the two-state solution to be rolled out, with “an independent Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967 borders, including Gaza and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital”.