Germany will provide up to €50 million for the restoration of the Chernobyl shelter
Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment plans to provide Ukraine with up to 50 million euros to restore the protective shell of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The funds are intended to help repair the shelter covering the destroyed Unit 4.
Minister Karsten Schneider’s office is requesting authorization for an extraordinary allocation of funds in the corresponding amount for the 2026 fiscal year. The payment is scheduled to take place in 2027.
Schneider is currently on a several-day trip to Ukraine, during which he had planned to visit the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
In 2025, the protective shell covering the destroyed nuclear reactor was damaged by a Russian drone strike.
According to the ministry, repairs are urgently needed “to permanently prevent a possible leak of radioactive substances into the environment,” the letter states.
According to experts, the protective function of the steel structure erected over the previously built concrete sarcophagus—which cost billions—is no longer guaranteed.
“The cost of repairs is estimated at at least 500 million euros, which Ukraine is unlikely to be able to raise,” the letter states.
“The repairs are extremely complex,” Schneider noted in a ministry statement, “and their timely completion requires joint international efforts. A corresponding process has already begun among the G7 countries.”
This is stated in a letter from the Federal Ministry of Finance to the Bundestag’s Budget Committee, according to Welt.
The government plans to extend the Chernobyl decommissioning program until 2036.
Within the Chernobyl Radiation-Ecological Biosphere Reserve, scientists and staff have managed to track a unique herd of feral cows. It is extremely difficult to spot the animals in the summer—due to the abundance of food in the forest, they are constantly on the move and disappear instantly at the slightest sign of a human approaching.
The Chernobyl Radiation and Ecological Biosphere Reserve has officially confirmed the presence of the golden jackal. The animal had previously been detected through tracks and camera traps, but its presence has only now been definitively confirmed.
