More than 200 firefighters and emergency workers, supported by about 60 vehicles, were deployed to tackle the fires, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. Crews have faced difficult conditions due to high temperatures, complex terrain and poor access to some burning areas. Ukraine’s State Agency for the Management of the Exclusion Zone said one fire in a nature conservation research area had been extinguished, while work to contain other hotspots continued. Authorities reported that the equivalent dose rate of gamma radiation in the fire zone remained within reference levels for the exclusion zone and within normal background fluctuations for the rest of the country. The exclusion zone surrounds the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where Reactor No. 4 exploded in 1986, releasing radioactive material over large parts of Europe. The site has repeatedly faced risks during Russia’s full‑scale invasion of Ukraine, including a Russian drone strike in February 2025 that ignited a fire on the containment shelter but did not cause a recorded increase in radiation levels.
