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War
1565th day. Ukraine accuses Russia of attacking a nuclear fuel storage facility at Chernobyl. Kyiv appealed to the IAEA
Since February 24, 2022, Meduza has been broadcasting live about the Russian-Ukrainian war. We publish your letters every day because we are sure that we need to continue talking about the war. Share with us your thoughts about the war. What feelings are you experiencing? How does war affect your life and your attitude towards the world? If you have a story related to the war, tell it . The feedback form is at the end of this article. A review of the previous day can be read here .
Ukraine
On the night of June 7, a Russian drone attacked the Centralized Storage Facility for spent nuclear fuel, which is located in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, the Ukrainian company Energoatom reported .
The building for receiving fuel containers was damaged. Spent nuclear fuel was not stored there. After the impact, a fire occurred; its area was 40 square meters. The fire was extinguished, there were no injuries among the personnel.
Energoatom stated that the background radiation on the site remains within normal limits.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that Russia “deliberately” hit an “extremely critical infrastructure” facility. “Today there is no excess of background radiation standards. But even the already sky-high Russian impudence has definitely been exceeded. Ukrainian rescuers extinguished the fire at this facility after the impact. And we need real new steps from the world so that the Russians feel that their terrorist war is a blow to Russia itself,” Zelensky wrote in his Telegram channel.
Ukraine informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the strike. The organization's report states that the building suffered significant damage; Nearby buildings were also damaged by the shock wave. IAEA experts will visit the storage facility in the near future. The organization's director general, Rafael Grossi, said the incident was deeply concerning because it took place at a facility where large quantities of nuclear material are stored just a few meters away.
Russia has not yet commented on these statements.
Recently, Moscow has accused the Ukrainian Armed Forces of attacks on the territory of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. On May 30, Rosatomannounced that a Ukrainian combat drone attacked the building of the turbine hall of the sixth power unit of the station. The main equipment was not damaged, but a hole appeared in the wall of the machine room. IAEA experts who arrived at the station noted “damage to a metal access hatch located on one of the upper levels of the building, as well as several debris and the remains of a burnt fiber optic cable on the ground.” The Ukrainian Armed Forces deny that they attacked the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.
War in photographs. Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station three years after destruction
On the night of June 6, 2023, the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station dam collapsed as a result of an explosion in the Kherson region. On the eve of the third anniversary of the disaster, the Ukrainian environmental group conducted another expedition to the territory of the former reservoir. For the third year now, its bottom has been overgrown with forests, forming a new ecosystem. “We can work in individual areas near the coast, although the territory itself is huge - two thousand square kilometers. Most likely, the most interesting thing is just further, where we cannot get (this territory is under Russian control - note from Meduza) . Therefore, all our conclusions are very underestimated, but in reality everything is much more interesting,” said expedition member, ecologist Alexey Vasilyuk.
According to scientists, the territory of the former reservoir has become home to a huge number of birds and insects.
“I have never heard so many nightingales at the same time. This may be the highlight of this territory - the largest forest of nightingales in Europe. The trees continue to grow in height and gain volume, but they are not getting smaller. We took soil samples - it is very rich in organic matter, although it is heavily polluted with heavy metals,” the ecologist said .
According to Ivan Moiseenko, a member of the board of the Ukrainian Environmental Group, in the first two years after the destruction of the station, this territory could not be called a forest, since the trees did not reach a height of five meters: “And in 2025, the average height of willow thickets became above five meters, and some willows - above seven meters. That is, starting from 2025, the thickets of trees at the bottom of the Kakhovka reservoir can be called a forest.”
He added that now about 400 species of plants grow at the bottom of the reservoir.
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War through the eyes of Meduza readers
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Meduza's readers live in different countries and have different attitudes towards the war. We publish your letters to see this event through your eyes. Our editors try to present all points of view, even if they do not coincide with the editorial position. However, in accordance with the Meduza code, we do not publish messages that contain “hate speech,” justify the murder of civilians, or express direct support for an aggressive war.
Alexandra (Budapest) . I recently left abroad, literally five months ago, so my soul is still there, in Russia. I think I still haven’t realized it, but my loved ones could also be in danger from drones: my mother and sister, my husband’s parents. I read the news about the dead and so far I don’t feel anything, although in my mind I understand that I should.
I monitor my moods through the state of my mother: she is highly suggestible, watches TV and reads cotton canals. Whatever is there is in her head. For a long time she chuckled condescendingly and said that my husband and I would definitely return to Russia and would still regret leaving. And recently I told her again something like “sorry, we don’t want to live in Russia, it’s dangerous here,” and she just answered: “What can I say, you’re right.”
Unfortunately, most of these people, although disillusioned with the authorities, still think that they just need to fight at full strength, they believe that the “collective West” wants to destroy Russia. I don’t know when or if they will understand that they are destroying themselves.