WASHINGTON – The United States said on April 29 it will provide up to US$100 million (S$128 million) towards repairing a dome preventing leaks from Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear disaster, contributing nearly one-fifth of costs after a Russian strike caused damage.
France, the current leader of the Group of Seven, said in March that repairs would cost €500 million (S$748 million) and asked fellow members of the club of major industrial democracies to chip in.
The US State Department said that US President Donald Trump’s administration would work with Congress to provide money for repairs, “consistent with the United States’ continued leadership on issues of nuclear safety and non-proliferation”.
“We call upon our G-7 and European partners to follow suit and make substantial financial commitments to share the burden of these essential repairs,” it said in a statement.
A reactor at Chernobyl – when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union – exploded during a botched safety test in 1986 in one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters, sending clouds of radiation across Europe and forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate.
In November 2016, a massive metal dome was erected over the remains of the reactor – paid for with €2.1 billion in international funding – to stop future leaks.
The Russian drone strike in February 2025 left a large hole in the outer of two radiation shells covering the remnants of the nuclear power plant.
The new US contribution comes despite Mr Trump’s usual disdain for international assistance and his pressure on Ukraine to make concessions to Russia.
Consistent with the Trump administration’s messaging, the State Department did not blame Russia over the dome, saying it was damaged “in a drone strike during the senseless ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine”.
Russia’s army captured the plant on the first day of its 2022 full-scale invasion Ukraine, before withdrawing a few weeks later.
Ukraine has repeatedly accused Moscow of targeting Chernobyl and its other nuclear power plants, saying Moscow’s strikes risk triggering a potentially catastrophic disaster. AFP