Zelenskyy warns of risk at Zaporizhzhia NPP on Chernobyl disaster anniversary

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of the risk of a nuclear incident as a result of Russia’s occupation of Ukraine, marking the anniversary today of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In a post on social media platform X, he again drew particular attention to the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine, which Russia seized at the start of its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

„Russian terrorists have held the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant hostage for 785 days. It is the duty of the whole world to put pressure on Russia to release the Zaporizhzhia NPP and return it to full Ukrainian control,“ Zelenskyy wrote.

He also called on the international community to ensure the protection of all Ukrainian nuclear facilities from Russian attacks.

Russia seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest facility of its kind in Europe, on 4 March 2022. The site, which is located close to the front line, has since repeatedly come under fire, with Kyiv and Moscow blaming each other.

„Radiation knows no borders or national flags. The Chernobyl disaster showed how quickly deadly threats can emerge. Tens of thousands of people put their health and lives on the line to deal with its terrible aftermath in 1986 and the years that followed,“ Zelenskyy said.

One of the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded on 26 April 1986. The facility was located in northern Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, near the Belarusian border, about 100 kilometres north of Kyiv and 350 kilometres southeast of Minsk.

The Chernobyl disaster, considered the worst in history, affected vast areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Radioactive fallout also affected much of Europe.

On the first day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian troops entered the exclusion zone around Chernobyl via Belarus and seized the power plant site. The plant has been out of operation since 2000, although nuclear fuel is still being cooled at the facility. Russian troops withdrew from the site on 31 March 2022.