Russians don’t want to learn from Chornobyl lessons

Not only did it massively affect the environment and people’s health but it also had far-reaching social and political implications. The topic of global nuclear security is more relevant today than ever in connection with the Russian aggression against Ukraine. In 2022, Chornobyl made the headlines of global and Ukrainian media when the Russian invaders seized two Ukrainian nuclear power plants.

What ties the ChNPP accident with the present

The ChNPP disaster had a cumulative effect. It impacted the environment and human health, while its aftermath had a direct impact on the present.

The Chornobyl disaster became an important factor in the collapse of the USSR. The accident at the power plant and the government’s lies surrounding it ultimately undermined trust in the Soviet regime and intensified the disintegration processes then only starting to emerge in the Soviet Union. Putin called its collapse “the biggest geopolitical catastrophe.” The current foreign policy pursuits of the Kremlin have the objective of reviving the USSR in some capacity.

In the early 1990s, the young Ukrainian state voluntarily gave up nuclear weapons and handed its arsenal to Russia not only under pressure from international partners. Society as a whole positively accepted the step: both due to the misconceptions about our neighbours and due to its nucleophobia — fear of all things nuclear, which was provoked by Chornobyl.

How Russia threatens global nuclear security today

By launching a full-scale war against Ukraine, the Kremlin has once again put humanity at risk of a nuclear catastrophe. 

On February 24, 2022, Russian troops invaded Kyiv region from the territory of Belarus and seized the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. For the first time since 1986, a 20-fold increase in gamma radiation was recorded in the Chornobyl exclusion zone. The State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation explained the surge in radiation by the movement of Russian military equipment, which raised contaminated dust into the air. The occupiers disregarded radiation safety rules when setting up positions in the Chornobyl zone, provoking a number of fires. In early April, the Russians resorted to what they referred to as a “gesture of goodwill” by withdrawing from Kyiv region. Ukraine regained control over the Chornobyl NPP and the exclusion zone. The invaders captured 169 National Guardsmen deployed at the facility and removed them from the territory of Ukraine. Some of them were released during prisoner exchanges, while the majority are still in captivity.

In March 2022, Russian troops captured the Zaporizhzhia NPP in Enerhodar and practically took its personnel hostage. The occupiers turned Europe's largest operational nuclear power plant into a military base. They deployed their artillery systems and air defence systems on the NPP premises. Landmines have been planted along the banks of the Kakhovske Reservoir.

The seizure of nuclear power plants is only one of many war crimes committed by the Russians on the territory of Ukraine. But it is one of the most dangerous for the rest of the world:

The Russians use the nuclear power plant as a “nuclear shield”, firing off their volleys from the area and knowing well that Ukraine will not retaliate;

Storage of weapons and ammunition in the immediate vicinity of reactors and containers with spent nuclear fuel creates a threat of a man-made disaster;

Pressure on personnel and improper operation of ZNPP equipment also increase the risk of accidents due to the “human factor”;

In case of detonation atthe Kakhovska HPP, which was mined by the Russians in April 2022, the cooling system of the ZNPP reactors would be disabled, which would yield catastrophic consequences.

The Putin regime uses a nuclear tool to achieve its aggressive goals, trying to undermine international support for Ukraine, intimidating the world with nuclear escalation, and periodically coming up with fake reports of Ukraine's “dirty bomb.”

Meanwhile, the Russian occupiers themselves must be held accountable for unprecedented nuclear terror. The scenarios usually described in fiction, cinematography or analytical reports of specialized agencies have become our reality.

The behaviour of the occupiers in the exclusion zone, at the Chornobyl NPP, and at the ZNPP demonstrated that for Russians, unlike Ukrainians, Chornobyl is not part of collective memory, and the nuclear disaster never became their collective trauma.

An irresponsible and cynical attitude toward nuclear objects and public threats to deploy nuclear arms bring the problem of Russia’s denuclearization to the forefront. Its disarmament under international control should become a key element of the post-war settlement. When a terrorist state is also a nuclear power it poses a threat to the entire world.

Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security