UNDP Chief De Croo Tours Chornobyl NSC Strike Damage, Opens Solar Plant for Reactor 4 Cooling

UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo visited the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant on September 9, 2026, going inside the New Safe Confinement over Reactor No. 4 to see firsthand the damage from Russian drone strikes on the protective structure. Briefing reporters the next day, De Croo said 'anyone who's attacking those protective structures ... is really gambling with the safety of millions of people,' adding that 'a nuclear installation can never be a target' and that military personnel guarding the site told him Russian drones fly over the facility on a daily basis. During the visit he also took part in the opening of a new solar power plant, built with support from Lithuania and Japan and UNDP technical expertise, that will supply electricity to Reactor No. 4's cooling systems as a hedge against grid strikes elsewhere in Ukraine. UNDP says it has mobilised $1.3 billion over four years to help restore Ukraine's energy system, now its largest area of work, as the country heads into its fifth winter of full-scale war.