Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy had earlier warned such a disaster could happen again if Russia continued its invasion. ‘Our defenders are giving their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated,’ Zelenskyy wrote earlier on Twitter
File image of Ukraine’s Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Reuters
Ukraine on Friday said that Russian troops seized control of Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in April 1986, with Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak calling the attack “one of the most serious threats in Europe today”.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy had earlier warned such a disaster could happen again if Russia continued its invasion. “Our defenders are giving their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated,” Zelenskyy wrote earlier on Twitter.
He called it a “declaration of war against the whole of Europe.”
Chernobyl capture raises fears of ‘ecological disaster’
The Ukrainian foreign ministry, recalling the catastrophe that ranks as the world’s worst nuclear power plant accident, said the Russian attack raised fears of “another ecological disaster” at the site, adding, “If the war continues, Chernobyl can happen again in 2022.”
Ukrainian officials reported radiation levels had been “exceeded” in a number of places in the area, but Russia said that was not the case.
It attributed the rise to a “disturbance of the topsoil due to the movement of a large amount of heavy military equipment through the exclusion zone and the release of contaminated radioactive dust into the air.”
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Meanwhile, Russian defense ministry spokesman Maj Gen Igor Konashenkov said Russian airborne troops were protecting the plant to prevent any possible “provocations”. He insisted that radiation levels in the area have remained normal.
So, why has Russia captured Chernobyl?
1) The town of Chernobyl – now an abandoned shell of its former self – in northern Ukraine is just 10 miles from Ukraine’s border with Belarus, which is a key Russian ally. Military experts believe Russia moved to capture Chernobyl simply because it is one of the fastest land routes for invading forces.
2) Chernobyl was seen as an easy target because it is so close to the border and also because of the 2,600 square kilometre ‘exclusion zone’ that covers the area. The ‘exclusion zone’ means security there is much weaker than at other points along Ukraine’s international borders.
3) A former chief of the US Army, Jack Keane, said Chernobyl itself “doesn’t have any military significance” but is location makes it key for Russia’s “decapitation” strategy to oust the Ukrainian government, which is widely seen as Putin’s ultimate aim.
4) Keane identified the route as one of four ‘axis’ Russian forces have used to invade Ukraine; the others are a second vector from Belarus, an advance south into the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, and a push north out of Russian-controlled Crimea to the city of Kherson.
5) Chernobyl is also seen as key because of its proximity to Kyiv; the town itself is just 130 kilometres from Ukraine’s capital.
6) Also, a Russian military source told news agency Reuters the capture of Chernobyl was meant to be a signal by Russia president Vladimir Putin to the West and NATO to not interfere with his plans.
7) For Russia, the site may hold particular significance, since the accident there 36 years ago led to social changes and new cooperation with the West that transformed the Soviet Union.
8) Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev later suggested that the Chernobyl disaster was “perhaps the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union” — more so than his liberalising reforms.
What had happened in 1986?
The fourth reactor at Chernobyl, 67 miles (108 km) north of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, exploded in April 1986 during a botched safety test, sending clouds of radiation billowing across much of Europe and reaching the eastern United States.
The radioactive strontium, caesium and plutonium mainly affected Ukraine and neighbouring Belarus, as well as parts of Russia and Europe. Estimates for the numbers of direct and indirect deaths from the disaster vary from the low thousands to as many as 93,000 extra cancer deaths worldwide.
Ukraine ‘left alone’
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country has been left on its own to fight Russia. “Who is ready to fight alongside us? I don’t see anyone.”
Zelenskyy also said that Russian “sabotage groups” had entered the capital Kyiv, and urged the city’s citizens to remain vigilant and observe a curfew.
The tone of the Ukrainian president’s address at night was very different from the one that he had delivered earlier in the day, just after Vladimir Putin had announced a ‘military operation’ against Ukraine.
In the previous address in which he introduced martial law, Zelenskyy said, “This is a completely groundless, cynical invasion. We, the citizens of Ukraine, have been determining our own future since 1991. But now, what is being decided is not only our country’s future, but also the future of how Europe will live.
With inputs from agencies
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