Chornobyl: G7 pledge 260 million euros for damaged protective shelter
The seven major industrialised nations are funding repairs to the shelter over the destroyed reactor. A Russian drone severely damaged it in February 2025.
Archive image · Photo: Cls14 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
The G7 countries are providing 260 million euros to repair safety infrastructure at the former Chornobyl nuclear power plant. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced this on Thursday. The G7 “expressed grave concern over the nuclear safety risks caused by the strike”, the bank said. The group comprises Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the UK and the US.
In February 2025, a Russian drone struck the so-called New Safe Confinement – the steel arch erected in 2016 over Reactor 4, which exploded in 1986. According to the EBRD, the attack breached the inner and outer shells and damaged critical systems. Two core functions were “severely compromised”: containing radioactive material and safely dismantling the unstable old sarcophagus.
In total, the EBRD estimates the repairs at around 500 million euros. The work must be completed by 2030 to limit corrosion and protect the structure's 100-year design life. Chornobyl lies about 130 kilometres north of Kyiv. Russian troops occupied the site for several weeks at the start of the 2022 invasion and withdrew on 31 March 2022.