The army Russian, who launched a military offensive against Ukraine, occupied the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant after heavy fighting with the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
“After a bloody battle, we lost control of Chernobyl,” said Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhail Podoliak, quoted by the Unian news agency.
According to Podoliak, the Ukrainian authorities have no information on “the state of the facilities of the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the sarcophagus and the nuclear waste warehouse”.
“After this absolutely irrational attack by the Russians in this direction, we cannot be sure that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is safe,” he said, calling the Russian offensive “one of the biggest threats Europe is facing right now.” .
Podoliak also stated that, “knowing the habits of the Russians, they probably are already preparing some provocation at the plant, or will they take advantage of the damage caused to the facilities during the attack to blame Ukraine for them”.
The advisor did not rule out the possibility that the Russian military “deliberately damages these very dangerous installations”.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the Russian incursion into the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is “a declaration of war against all of Europe”.
Already Anton Geraschenko , adviser to the Ministry of the Interior, warned that if the radioactive waste deposits stored in Chernobyl are damaged, “nuclear dust could spread throughout the territory of Ukraine and those of Belarus and the countries of the European Union”.