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\n Published on
\n 08\/05\/2026 – 11:13 GMT+2\n <\/p>\n
A large forest fire was burning through the Chernobyl exclusion zone on Friday following a drone crash near the defunct nuclear plant the previous day, Ukrainian authorities said.<\/p>\n
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Radiation levels at the site were within “normal limits,” authorities reported, adding that firefighters were working to contain the blaze.<\/p>\n
An image published by Ukraine’s state emergency service showed a large column of white smoke billowing into the sky from the area, parts of which are closed off to the public due to high levels of radioactivity.<\/p>\n
The site surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear plant has been largely deserted since 1986, when the plant suffered a catastrophic meltdown.<\/p>\n
“As of 10 am on May 8, the approximate area of the fire was about 1,100 hectares (11 square kilometres),” the Chernobyl nature reserve, which manages the site, said.<\/p>\n
The fire broke out on Thursday “as a result of a drone crash,” it added but did not say the origin of the drone.<\/p>\n
Kyiv has repeatedly accused Moscow of recklessly attacking its nuclear sites, including the Chernobyl complex.<\/p>\n
A Russian drone last year punctured a hole in one of the radiation shells covering the reactor unit that exploded in the 1986 disaster.<\/p>\n
Ukraine’s state emergency service said rescuers were working to prevent the further spread of the fire.<\/p>\n
“Due to strong gusts of wind, the fire is rapidly spreading across the territory, covering new sections of the forest,” it said.<\/p>\n
“The situation is complicated by dry weather, strong winds and mine danger in certain areas of the territory, which significantly limits the possibility of extinguishing work.”<\/p>\n
The exclusion zone suffered wildfires in 2020, which lasted several weeks and caused a spike in background radiation.<\/p>\n
Just last month, Ukraine marked 40 years since the disaster at the plant.<\/p>\n
Additional sources \u2022 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 08\/05\/2026 – 11:13 GMT+2 A large forest fire was burning through the Chernobyl exclusion zone on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[25881,228378,192,31936,79,1208,45960],"class_list":["post-630868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-chernobyl","tag-drone-strike","tag-environment","tag-forest-fires","tag-science","tag-ukraine","tag-war-in-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}