![]() Some 100 Americans and an equal number of Soviet citizens - Russians and Ukrainians - came together for a peace mission, visiting cities from Kyiv to Odesa that had been completely shut off during the Cold War because of nuclear and other military weapons production in the region. I learned devastating details about the Chernobyl disaster from a control room engineer named Oleg during a trip to Ukraine in August 1990. On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine suffered a massive explosion and meltdown. Ukraine’s recent history holds an important lesson for us about what’s at stake. As Ukrainian workers continue to operate the plant amid the shelling, the whole world should be afraid about the risk of a radiation leak and the possibility of a reactor core meltdown. They based soldiers and heavy equipment there and have been using the plant as a defensive shield, lobbing shells from there and hoping Ukrainians would not risk hitting one of the six power units by counterattacking.īut Russian officials say Ukraine has now fired back. After Russian forces brutally invaded Ukraine six months ago, they gained control of the nuclear facility early in the fighting. Moscow denies its troops have carried out atrocities in areas they occupy.The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, lies along the Dnieper River in southeastern Ukraine. Ukrainian police and prosecutors have identified four places in Kherson where they suspect Russian forces tortured people before abandoning the city, Ukraine's prosecutor general's office said on Monday. Moscow denies intentionally targeting civilians in what it calls a "special military operation" to disarm Ukraine. This is a huge war crime live," he tweeted. "There is no military logic: they just want to take revenge on the locals. ![]() Presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said Russia was bombarding Kherson from across the Dnipro river, now that its troops had fled. Ukraine's military said late on Monday Russian forces had tried to make advances around Bakhmut and Avdiivka in Donetsk, and bombarded nearby towns. Moscow has been reinforcing the areas it still holds, and pressing an offensive of its own along a stretch of front line west of the city of Donetsk held by its proxies since 2014. Russian forces pulled out of the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine ten days ago in one of the biggest retreats of the war, after being driven out of Kharkiv province in the northeast in September and away from the capital Kyiv in April. Ukraine's nuclear energy firm Energoatom said Russia's military shelled the site, accusing it of nuclear blackmail and actions that were "endangering the whole world". Russia's defence ministry said Ukraine fired at power lines supplying the plant. The reactors are shut down but there is a risk that nuclear fuel could overheat if the power driving the cooling systems is cut. It has six Soviet-designed VVER-1000 V-320 water-cooled and water-moderated reactors containing Uranium 235. The Zaporizhzhia plant provided about a fifth of Ukraine's electricity before Russia's invasion, and has been forced to operate on back-up generators a number of times. The Zaporizhzhia plant itself and territory south of it fell to Russia in March. Kyiv controls territory across the river from the power station, including the regional capital. Kyiv says the transfer of assets amounts to theft. Rosatom has controlled the facility through a subsidiary since President Vladimir Putin in October ordered Russia to formally seize the plant and transfer Ukrainian staff to a Russian entity. Grossi spoke to world leaders and reiterated the need for a nuclear safety and security protection zone around Zaporizhzhia, the IAEA said.ĬEO Alexei Likhachev said Rosatom been in negotiations with the IAEA "all night", Interfax reported. Zelenskiy said that half of the country's power capacity had been knocked out by Russian rockets. A view shows Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the town of Nikopol, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine November 7, 2022.
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