Today marks 38 years since the Chernobyl nuclear accident and Volodimir Zelensky warned of the risk of a nuclear accident at the Zaporizhia station, which is under Russian control.
The Russian military took control of this nuclear power plant, located in southern Ukraine, almost immediately after the invasion of the country. Before its seizure, the Zaporizhia station produced 20% of Ukraine’s electricity.
“It has been 785 days since Russian terrorists took the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant hostage,” Zelensky complained to Kh.
“It is up to the entire world to pressure Russia to free the Zaporizhia station and return it to Ukrainian control,” he added, assessing that “this is the only way to avoid new disasters” like Chernobyl.
On April 26, 1986, when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union, a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, located about 100 kilometers north of Kiev, exploded.
This nuclear accident, considered the worst in history, caused the contamination of vast areas, mainly in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
On the first day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on February 24, 2022, Russian forces entered the highly radioactive exclusion zone around Chernobyl through Belarus and seized the plant, which is no longer operational.
They remained there for a month before leaving and looting equipment, according to Kiev.
Radiation does not see national borders or flags. The Chornobyl disaster demonstrated how quickly deadly threats can emerge. Tens of thousands of people mitigated the Chornobyl disaster at the cost of their own health and lives, eliminating its terrible consequences in 1986 and… pic.twitter.com/ezclAdytag
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленский (@ZelenskyyUa) April 26, 2024
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant continued to operate in the first months after the Russian invasion, despite its occupation by Russian forces and shelling in the surrounding area. It stopped working in the fall of 2022.
Kiev and Moscow have repeatedly accused each other of bombing the area around the nuclear plant.
Source: RES-MPE