Russian Forces Seize Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

Myhailo Podolyak, advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has told the Associated Press that Russia has taken control of Chernobyl. “This is one of the most serious threats to Europe today,” he said.

According to the Associated Press report, a Russian shelling hit and pierced a radioactive waste containment repository.

President Zelenskyy earlier said that Russians were attempting to seize control of the Chernobyl power plant near Pripyat in the north of Ukraine.

“Russian occupation forces are trying to seize the [Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant,]” Zelenskyy said in a tweet. “Our defenders are giving their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated. Reported this to [Swedish Prime Minister.] This is a declaration of war against the whole of Europe.”

Zelenkyy’s comments are a dire warning about the ongoing danger of the Chernobyl disaster. The nuclear byproduct at the plant is an international concern. For decades a concrete sarcophagus protected the outside world from the radiation within the plant, but it was an inadequate, short-term solution.

In 2018, the combined effort of multiple countries funded, designed, and constructed the New Safe Confinement or New Shelter. Decades in the making, this new structure is meant to keep the world safe from Chernobyl’s radiation for the next 100 years.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs echoed Zelenskyy’s comments on Twitter. “In 1986, the world saw the biggest technological disaster in Chernobyl,” it said in a tweet. “Russia’s attack on Ukraine may cause another ecological disaster moving its military forces to Chernobyl. If Russia continues the war, Chernobyl can happen again in 2022.”

Chernobyl has been largely abandoned since a reactor meltdown in 1986 shuttered the plant. The worst nuclear disaster in the history of the world, the reactor meltdown created an irradiated exclusion zone around the planet and killed thousands. Currently, it’s a world historic site and is coated in a sarcophagus meant to contain the worst of the radiation.

The exclusion zone also extends to Ukraine’s northern border with Belarus, a Kremlin ally across which Russian troops are moving. 

This post has been updated after Russian forces took Chernobyl.