According to Mykhailo Podolyak, Ukraine’s presidential office advisor, Russian soldiers have taken control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
“It is impossible to say the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is safe after a totally pointless attack by the Russians,” he said.
“This is one of the most serious threats in Europe today,” Podolyak said.
Russian military took control of the nuclear power station on Thursday. As a result, following Moscow’s land, sea, and air attack, Ukrainian forces engaged them on three fronts. Before invading Ukraine, many Russian soldiers assembled in the Chernobyl “exclusion zone.”
Russia wants to control the Chernobyl nuclear reactor to signal NATO not to interfere militarily, the same source stated.
In 1986, the Chernobyl disaster dispersed plumes of radioactive waste throughout Europe after a failed safety test at one nuclear plant’s reactors. However, it became a tourist destination. About a week before the Russian invasion, the Chernobyl zone was closed.
“Our defenders are giving their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted shortly before Chernobyl’s invasion.
“This is a declaration of war against the whole of Europe.”