The Impact
Russian drone attac on the Chornobyl NSC
Executive Summary
On 14 February 2025, a Russian Geran-2 drone with a high-explosive
warhead struck the roof of the New Safe Confinement (NSC) at
the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The NSC contains what remains of
the destroyed reactor unit 4 that exploded on 26 April 1986 and the
Shelter Object or Sarcophagus that was built immediately after the
disaster began. Although Russia denied having targeted the NSC,
military analysts reported that this was almost certainly a deliberate act of its armed forces. In March 2025, Greenpeace Ukraine contracted engineer
Eric Schmieman to conduct an ongoing assessment of the drone strike and its impact on the Chornobyl nuclear plant and specifically the functional status
NSC. From 1998 Schmieman led one of the main contractors in the conceptual design of the NSC and was Senior Technical Advisor during its construction.
This initial assessment for Greenpeace Ukraine will be submitted to the Office of the Prosecutor General
of Ukraine.
