Ukraine Fortifies Chornobyl Zone Amid Belarus War Fears
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- Ukraine's military is constructing new fortifications in the Chornobyl exclusion zone — including trenches, tank positions and anti-drone netting — amid fears that Belarus could join Russia's invasion, with the Belarusian border lying just 12 km from Reactor No. 4.
- President Zelensky revealed on April 17 that Ukrainian intelligence detected new roads and artillery positions being built on the Belarusian side of the 1,000-km shared border, and on May 21 warned Ukraine may need to act 'preventively' against Lukashenko's regime.
- Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine's drone forces, said he had a list of the first 500 targets to strike in Belarus; Lukashenko shot back that Ukraine has 'one very serious target, with precise coordinates' — an apparent reference to Zelensky's office in Kyiv.
- Alexander Lukashenko has publicly ruled out sending Belarusian troops, saying they would not become 'cannon fodder' in Russia's war, while reaffirming his alliance with Moscow after the two countries completed joint exercises simulating tactical nuclear weapons use.
- Russian drones increasingly hug the Ukraine-Belarus border rather than crossing Belarusian airspace, after Belarusian air defenses shot down several Russian drones earlier in 2025, according to a drone operator with the 28th Chornobyl Regiment.
- A February 2025 Shahed drone strike damaged the steel containment structure sheltering Reactor No. 4, prompting the IAEA to declare repairs 'essential'; a second drone hit a spent nuclear fuel storage facility on Sunday, though no radiation spike was detected.
Why it matters: With the Belarusian army fielding just 48,000 active troops against Ukraine's 800,000, a direct Belarusian entry would be marginal militarily — but Russia could instead use Belarusian territory for a renewed push toward Kyiv, as it did in February 2022. The Chornobyl zone adds a nuclear dimension: drone strikes have already damaged the reactor's containment structure, and the 1986 disaster's radiation fallout disproportionately hit Belarusian civilians.
