The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has secured a €10mn ($10.8mn) contribution from France to help fund emergency repairs to the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure at the Chernobyl (Chornobyl) nuclear power plant, following damage sustained in a Russian drone strike earlier this year.

The agreement, signed on May 14 by Pierre Heilbronn, Special Envoy of the French President for Ukraine’s Relief and Reconstruction, and Mark Bowman, Vice President for Policy and Partnerships at the EBRD, was announced during the Bank’s 34th Annual Meeting and Business Forum in London.

“The brutal war of Russia on Ukraine has resulted in widespread destruction and many lives lost. The acts of destruction have also reached Chernobyl,” Odile Renaud-Basso, the president of the EBRD, said at a press event to announce the French investment.

The EBRD has invested in containment and storage of nuclear fuel, but now damage to the sarcophagus has raised serious concerns, added Renaud-Basso.

Russian drones have blown holes in the sarcophagus and now work is in hand to plug the gaps to stop water leaking into the plant, which will further undermine the radiation containment effort. But that will not be enough as there is more serious structural damage.

“At this stage we can’t say how long it will take or how much it will cost. But it is clear it will take a long time and it will be expensive,” Renaud-Basso said, adding that the cost will exceed the EBRD’s resources dedicated to maintaining the structure. However, with contributions from partners, Renaud-Basso said the work will be done.

The funding will be directed to the International Chernobyl Cooperation Account (ICCA), a multilateral fund managed by Phil Bennett of EBRD.

“We have a long-term strategy on delivering long-term decommissioning of Chernobyl, but we were all shocked by the February 14 attack on the plant,” said Bennett. “It's a long term context of decommissioning but we have an immediate urgency if we lose the integrating then the long-term decommissioning will be lost.

There are currently 15 donors in the ICCA, including France. Bennett says that while the new funding will allow work to start on solving the immediate issues, there will be a need for more funding and work in the future as the long-term infrastructure.

“Don't think that this will end when we parch this up. This is a 100-year project. It won't be finished in our lifetimes,” says Bennett.

The NSC, which was designed to contain radiation from Reactor 4—the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster—suffered structural damage in the February 2025 attack, rendering some of its protective systems non-operational.

Heilbronn said that from 14 years since the accident, work has been ongoing to clean the site up but that work has been made more difficult by attacks by Russian armed forces and then the attack by Russian forces and drones. Heilbronn reports that there are around 250 holes in the sarcophagus, which has undermined the structural integrity.

“The new containment structure was designed and made by French contractors,” said Heilbronn, who highlighted that France has deep experience in working with nuclear power stations, which provide 80% of France’s electricity.

In its initial phase, the project will focus on repairing the external cladding of the NSC to prevent further water ingress.

Olga Zykova, Deputy Minister of Finance of Ukraine, said: “The deliberate actions of the aggressor state have posed a danger not to Ukraine but to the world. The attack on the nuclear power plant shows once again that the Russia aggression is not just about territory but threatens global security,” speaking at the EBRD’s London annual meeting.

In the longer term, the repairs aim to restore the core functionality of the structure, reducing the risk of releasing radioactive dust and enabling future deconstruction of the original sarcophagus and reactor remains.

“Our €10mn contribution to the repair of Chernobyl’s New Safe Confinement illustrates France’s long standing support for Ukraine,” said Heilbronn. “French companies played a crucial role in building the NSC, and we hope that this first contribution, which comes only three months after the drone attack, should unlock further pledges from partner countries.”

Bowman added: “We are grateful to France for this vital and timely contribution to the ICCA. Russia’s recent attack on one of the world’s most vulnerable nuclear facilities has caused significant damage to the NSC, putting at risk its functionality and the planned lifetime required for dismantling and waste management tasks. The EBRD is encouraged by the renewed international support for Chernobyl and remains committed to restoring adequate safety levels at the NSC.”

The ICCA was established by the EBRD in November 2020 at the request of the Ukrainian government to support long-term remediation efforts at Chernobyl. Following Russia’s occupation of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in 2022, the fund’s mandate was expanded to cover wider nuclear safety and security measures across Ukraine.

To date, international donors have contributed approximately €2bn to EBRD-managed programmes in Chernobyl, while the Bank itself has allocated more than €800mn of its net income to related projects. The ICCA currently holds €25mn in donor funds.