Britain announced Thursday it will provide £17 million to repair the protective shelter at Ukraine’s Chornobyl nuclear plant, which the British government said a Russian drone strike damaged last year.
The money will support an international repair program coordinated by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, working with Ukraine and donors from the Group of Seven, according to the British government.
The repairs are intended to restore the shelter’s confinement and ventilation functions and help it last as long as designed. Without that work, the government warned, corrosion could threaten the structure and create environmental and safety risks.
Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey said Britain remained committed to Ukraine and would support reconstruction while seeking to restrict the money available to fund Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war.
“Our message to Putin is clear – we stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine and will do so until they prevail”
The announcement also detailed further attacks on Ukraine’s energy network. Between Oct. 5 and 11, Russia carried out more than 200 strikes against electricity infrastructure and 17 against oil and gas facilities, the British government reported.
On Oct. 13, Russia fired 39 ballistic missiles at Ukraine in what Britain described as one of the largest such attacks of the war. Much of the attack targeted energy infrastructure, the government said.
Britain reported that the strikes left 600,000 civilians without electricity. It also counted six attacks on energy facilities since President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire Sunday. The attack figures and outage estimate have not been independently verified.
The Chornobyl pledge follows Miliband’s visit to Kyiv last week, his first since becoming foreign secretary. He announced £54 million to help Ukraine through winter, including £20 million for energy needs.
On Wednesday, the British prime minister received Ukrainian President Zelenskyy at Downing Street and urged allies to put more pressure on Russia.
Britain said its support for Ukraine now totals almost £25 billion, including more than £770 million for energy. Under its Russia sanctions program, it has targeted more than 3,500 people, organizations and ships. More than 3,300 of those sanctions followed Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
The government described Britain as a founding donor to the International Chornobyl Cooperation Account. Its contributions to that fund total 8 million euros, making it the third-largest individual donor after Norway and France, according to the release.
The new £17 million contribution will build on that funding. Thursday’s announcement did not specify when the shelter repairs would begin or when they would be completed.
