Ukraine: Wildfire stopped before spreading to Chernobyl

MOSCOW

Ukraine announced on Tuesday that a wildfire in the Chernobyl exclusion zone was stopped from spreading to the city of Pripyat.

The State Agency of Ukraine for Management of the Exclusion Zone said there was no threat that the fire would reach important infrastructures, such as the Podlesny storage facility, which contains the most highly radioactive waste in the Chernobyl zone, located near Pripyat and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

The agency said 400 firefighters and 100 units of equipment including three AN-32P planes and three helicopters were engaged in the extinguishing effort.

Following the situation in the exclusion zone, President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to have a meeting with the country's emergency officials.

The fire broke out in the Chernobyl exclusion zone on April 4, with authorities saying two days later that it had been extinguished and radiation levels were normal.

However, the remaining blazes merged to form a larger wildfire again. Officials have been unable to pinpoint the exact area of the fire due to heavy smoke.

Preliminary reports indicate that it may cover an area of up to 100 hectares (247 acres).

The exclusion zone management agency has asked police to check for deliberate arson as a cause of the large-scale forest fires near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.