War in Ukraine: Zelensky remembers Chernobyl and warns against nuclear danger in Zaporozhye

On April 26, 1986, when Ukraine was still part of the USSR, a reactor at the Chernobyl power plant, located about a hundred kilometers north of Kyiv, exploded. The nuclear accident, considered the worst in history, contaminated large areas, especially in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Much of the rest of Europe also suffered from radioactive fallout.

38 years later, Ukraine is at war, and since the conflict began, the safety of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant has repeatedly raised concerns.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky once again warned this Friday of the risk of a nuclear incident due to the two-year occupation by Russian troops of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, which previously produced 20% of Ukraine’s electricity.

“Russian soldiers looted laboratories”

“785 days have passed since Russian terrorists took the Zaporozhye power plant hostage,” Vladimir Zelensky lamented this Friday on X (formerly Twitter), adding: “Radiation sees neither borders nor national flags. The Chernobyl disaster demonstrated how quickly deadly threats can arise. Tens of thousands of people mitigated the Chernobyl disaster at the cost of their own health and lives, eliminating its terrible consequences in 1986 and in subsequent years.”

According to him, in 2022, Russia occupied the Chernobyl nuclear power plant for 35 days. “Russian soldiers looted laboratories, captured guards and brutalized staff, and used the station to conduct other military operations.”

“For 785 days, Russian terrorists have held the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant hostage. And the responsibility of the whole world is to put pressure on Russia so that the Zaporizhia NPP is liberated and returned to the full control of Ukraine, and also that all Ukrainian nuclear facilities are protected from Russian attacks,” he also said. The President of Ukraine. For him, “this is the only way to avoid new radiological disasters, which are constantly threatened by the presence of Russian occupiers at the Zaporizhia NPP.”

The Zaporozhye power plant continued to operate during the first months of the Russian invasion, despite its capture by Russian troops and periods of bombing, and was then closed in the fall of 2022. Kyiv and Moscow have repeatedly accused each other of bombing the facility.