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A large forest fire burned through the Chernobyl exclusion zone on Friday after two drones crashed within the nature reserve near the disaster-tainted nuclear plant the previous day, Ukrainian authorities said.
Radiation levels at the site remained within “normal limits,” authorities reported, while firefighters worked to contain the blaze.
Images from the area showed columns of white smoke rising from parts of the exclusion zone, where access remains restricted because of radioactivity left by the 1986 nuclear disaster.
Denis Nesterov, director of the Chernobyl nature reserve, said the fire had broken out after two drones crashed inside the reserve.
“As of 3:00 p.m. (1200 GMT), the estimated area of the fire, which broke out after two drones crashed within the Chernobyl nature reserve, is about 1,180 hectares (12 square kilometers, five square miles),” Nesterov said in a Facebook post.
He did not identify the origin of the drones.
The governor of the neighboring Chernigiv region gave a higher estimate, saying the fire had spread across an area of 40 square kilometers (15 square miles).
Ukraine’s state emergency service said rescuers were working to prevent the fire from spreading further.
“Due to strong gusts of wind, the fire is rapidly spreading across the territory, covering new sections of the forest,” the service said.
It added that dry weather, strong winds and the danger of mines in certain areas were making firefighting efforts more difficult and limiting access for emergency crews.
Chernigiv governor Vyacheslav Chaus said drones were also complicating efforts to extinguish the blaze.
“The aggressor is preventing the fire from being extinguished. Their drones are constantly hovering over the area,” Chaus said.
Kyiv has repeatedly accused Moscow of recklessly attacking nuclear sites, including the Chernobyl complex.
Last year, a Russian drone punctured a hole in one of the radiation shells covering the reactor unit that exploded on April 26, 1986.
The Chernobyl nuclear plant site has been largely deserted since the catastrophic meltdown. The surrounding area has since been converted into a nature reserve.
The exclusion zone also suffered wildfires in 2020, which burned for several weeks and caused a spike in background radiation.
Ukraine marked 40 years since the Chernobyl disaster only last month.
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