Downed Russian Drones Spark Forest Fires in Chornobyl Exclusion Zone

Forest fires triggered by the fallen Russian drones are currently being liquidated across the Chornobyl exclusion zone, Ukraine’s State Agency for the Management of the Exclusion Zone (SAEZ) reported on June 29.

Emergency services, including units from Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (SES), have been deployed to extinguish the fires. A reinforcement detachment from the Kyiv region was also rushed into the exclusion zone to reinforce local crews.

While one fire inside a nature conservation research department was completely extinguished on June 29, operations to localize and contain the remaining active fires are ongoing to prevent the flames from spreading further, SAEZ wrote.

To manage the deployment safely, authorities are tracking the perimeter using video surveillance while working alongside the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Radiation levels are being continuously checked by an automated monitoring network, which confirms that the equivalent dose rate of gamma radiation remains entirely within normal control levels. SAEZ continues to coordinate the emergency efforts, stating that the situation is under permanent control.

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These current fires follow a similar incident in early May when a Russian Shahed drone crash ignited a massive fire in the Chornobyl zone that consumed over 1,100 hectares of the reserve, where firefighting efforts are regularly complicated by dry weather and the presence of landmines left behind by the Russian army.

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