‘Radioactive wind’ threat to Europe
An unstoppable wind of ‘‘radioactive contamination’’ could spread over Europe if the West does not act to stop Russia’s assault on the continent’s largest nuclear power plant, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, has warned.
Last weekend’s artillery barrages at Zaporizhzhia, in Russian-occupied territory in southern Ukraine, have sparked international fears of a Chernobyl-style disaster.
Fighting around the facility, located on the banks of the Dniper River, has intensified as Ukrainian forces battle to reclaim territories occupied by Russia in the south.
Both Moscow and Kyiv traded blame for the shelling around the power plant, which was captured by Russian fighters in early March.
Ukraine’s state-run nuclear power company warned the bombardment had damaged radiation sensors, after strikes close to a storage facility for spent fuel at the plant.
Russia’s defence ministry said yesterday that Ukrainian attacks had damaged high-voltage power lines into the Soviet-era plant and forced it to reduce output by two of its six reactors to ‘‘prevent disruption’’.
The clashes prompted calls for the United Nation’s atomic watchdog and international peacekeepers to be deployed on the ground to ensure the plant remains safe.
In his overnight address, Zelensky said: ‘‘There is no such nation in the world that can feel safe when a terrorist state fires at a nuclear plant.
‘‘God forbid, if something irreparable happens, no-one will stop the wind that will spread the radioactive contamination.’’ The wartime leader proposed the introduction of sanctions on Russian nuclear energy and uranium exports as part of a possible Western response to ‘‘the threat that Russia created by striking at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant’’.
The invaders have forced the plant’s Ukrainian technicians to remain working, in often violent conditions, at the facility in order to keep it running. The Russian-installed official in the Zaporizhzhia region said it was operating normally.
Ukraine’s military intelligence chiefs yesterday accused Russia of mining energy units at the plant, according to the Interfax news agency.
Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear power firm, claimed Russia was ‘‘openly blackmailing the whole world’’ by threatening to detonate explosives unless Ukraine hands over permanent control of the facility.
Local reports cited comments by Valery Vasiliev, Russia’s Major General, which have since been deleted from pro-Kremlin channels on the Telegram messaging app, insisting ‘‘there will be either Russian land or a scorched desert’’.
Russian forces are also using the fighting to try to cause power cuts in southern Ukraine, Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, the country’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said.
‘‘Russian occupants aim to destroy the plant’s infrastructure, cause damage to all transmission lines – and they are used to transport electricity to the Ukrainian grid – and to cause blackouts in the south of Ukraine,’’ he said.