Russia-Ukraine war: Chernobyl remembers nuclear tragedy amid nightmare of Russian occupation

The Ukrainian Chernobyl plant, scene 36 years ago of the largest nuclear accident in history, trying to overcome the trauma of Russia’s military occupation in the midst of a conflict whose fighting continues to threaten Ukraine’s atomic facilities.

“We don’t have peace yet, the situation is not yet stable. We must be alert,” Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said during a visit to the plant.

If in other years the anniversary of the disaster included ceremonies presided over by the president, Volodimir Zelensky, this time the dispute precluded any official actionalthough Russian troops had already left the area within a month.

“On February 24 the international community was once again convinced that totalitarian regimes like the Soviet Union and now Russia. they are a threat for the world’s nuclear security, ”the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

hidden threats

That is why the visit of Grossi, head of the UN nuclear agency, was so important that the secretary general, António Guterres, also visited Moscow.

During the Russian occupation “nuclear safety is not normal and could be an accident, ”the Argentine diplomat said.

Grossi arrived at Chernobyl accompanied by a team of experts and half a ton of nuclear measurement equipment to control the radioactive situation there and perform “repairs”.

“Assistance (from the IAEA) will continue. This is just the first shipment of equipment, this is not a symbolic visit,” he said, referring to the list of requests presented by kyiv to ensure the safe operation of the four nuclear plants. its.

That the threat is hidden This was made clear, according to the Ukrainian nuclear agency (Energoatom), in the attacks carried out near the Zaporizhia plant, the largest in Europe.

“Flying missiles at a low altitude in the territory of the nuclear plant, where there are seven reactors with large amounts of nuclear material, creates a huge risk. And it is that the missiles are able to hit one or several nuclear reactors, which threaten the whole world to cause radioactive catastrophe “, denounced Petró Kotin, head of Energoatom.

The occupation

Grossi took the opportunity to pay tribute to the workers at the plant held by Russian soldiers for 35 days, thanks to their professionalism “The worst would have been avoided.”

“They worked as if nothing had happened and kept the situation stable,” he said.

IAEA experts will also inspect the so -called “exclusion zone” around the plant, which was occupied by the Russians more than a month after the surrender of Ukrainian soldiers.

“We have information about some (Russian) activity that took place there,” he said.

According to Ukrainian authorities, Russian soldiers, who entered the territory of the plant with tanks and trucks, stole some buildings, handled contaminated objectscreated spills and deployed heavy weapons.

In addition, according to images released by Ukraine, the Russian soldiers dug ditches and they cut down trees in the area known as the Red Forest, one of the areas with the highest levels of radioactivity on the planet, which experts consider extremely irresponsible.

In buildings where the Russian military lived and even in sandbags Radioactivity levels above the norm were determined.

Ukraine turned to the international community to estimate the extent of damage caused by the plant and define responsibilities.

some atomic bombs

Former Soviet chemical troop officer Alexandr Logachov remembers “as it is now” the four days he worked around Chernobyl in 1986.

“I still remember the enlightened liquidators at night like a firefly because of radiation, “he told Efe.

He arrived a few hours after the accident. “Every hour that passes the radiation rises. On the day of the Pripyat evacuation, we saw 1.8 roentgens, “he explained.

“If the atomic bomb is a chain reaction, Chernobyl is like a bomb every second due to steam leak from the fourth reactor that covered the city depending on the wind direction, ”he explained.

In his opinion, what happened at the Fukushima plant (2011) shows that the world still has not corrected the “human factor”, because the construction of the plant during the Soviet era included many irregularities. “It can be said that on the same day the communist system exploded”he pointed out.

The same thing happened with the conquest of Russia. “They have no brains. They don’t know the danger they put us in,” said Logachov, who lives in Hostomel, a town north of kyiv that was taken by enemy troops.

“I had to register myself. Although it was very close to the airport taken by Russian paratroopers, my house was rescued. Instead, many civilians were killed “the Mint.

Source: EFE

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