Russian forces may create new radiation threat near Chernobyl: Ukraine

Ukraine’s deputy PM urged the United Nations to send a mission to assess the risks.

Kyiv:

A senior Ukrainian official on Sunday accused Russia of “irresponsible” acts around the occupied Chernobyl power station, which could send radiation across Europe, and of sending a mission to the United Nations to assess the risks. requested.

Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said the Russian military was “militarizing” the exclusion zone around the station, the site of the world’s worst civilian nuclear accident in 1986.

That said, Russian forces were transporting large quantities of obsolete and poorly maintained weapons, posing a risk of damaging the control vessel built around the station’s ruined fourth reactor.

And the Russian military was preventing firefighters from putting out a large number of fires in the area.

“In terms of nuclear security, the irresponsible and unprofessional actions of Russian troops present a very serious threat not only to Ukraine, but also to millions of Europeans,” Vereshchuk said on his Telegram account.

“We therefore demand that the United Nations Security Council take immediate measures to remove the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl station, as well as to eliminate the risk of any recurrence of the Chernobyl accident as a result of the actions of the Russian occupation forces.” To send special missions.” said.

Vereshchuk said that damage to the control vessel, built with European financing, “will inevitably lead to the release into the atmosphere of considerable amounts of radioactive dust and contamination not only in Ukraine but also in other European countries”.

Russia, it said, was “ignoring these risks” by continuing to transport weapons to areas near the station.

Reuters could not immediately confirm Vereshchuk’s claims on the ground. Russia has previously denied that its forces put nuclear facilities inside Ukraine at risk.

In 1986, a fire and explosion at Chernobyl’s fourth reactor spread radiation to Britain and Spain. Thousands of deaths have been linked to radiation after the accident and from it.

All of its reactors have now been taken out of service.

Russian forces occupied Chernobyl station in the first days of the invasion last month and were briefly barred from leaving the station or spelled out by other workers.

The mayor of Slavutik, a city built and built after the 1986 accident, said on Saturday that Russian forces had captured the city. Three people died in the clashes.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement that it was monitoring the situation closely and expressed concerns about the potential for workers to move in and out of the station.

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