The United States will provide $100 million to repair the damaged protective shelter at the Chornobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine, Ukrainian officials announced.

The funding is intended to address damage to the containment structure that covers the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster. The protective shelter, known as the New Safe Confinement, was completed in 2019 to replace an earlier sarcophagus built immediately after the reactor explosion.

The Chornobyl nuclear facility has been a point of concern since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Russian forces briefly occupied the site early in the conflict before withdrawing in March 2022.

The announcement comes as international attention remains focused on nuclear safety issues in the region. The protective shelter is designed to contain radioactive materials from the destroyed reactor for up to 100 years.

Details about the specific nature of the damage requiring repair and the timeline for the restoration work were not immediately provided in the announcement from Ukrainian officials.