Zelensky accuses Russia of ‘nuclear terrorism’ on Chernobyl anniversary

President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of “nuclear terrorism” on Sunday, as Ukraine marked the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster amid deadly new drone attacks.

Three people were killed across Ukraine after Moscow launched more than a hundred drones overnight, one of the relentless barrages the country has faced almost nightly since the beginning of the war in 2022.

In a social media post marking the Chernobyl anniversary, Zelensky said Russia, through its invasion, was “again bringing the world to the brink of a man-made disaster”.

He highlighted how Russian drones regularly pass over Chernobyl and that one had hit its protective shell last year.

“The world must not allow this nuclear terrorism to continue, and the best way is to force Russia to stop its reckless attacks,” he added.

The 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was the worst civilian nuclear disaster in history and changed global perceptions of nuclear energy.

Thousands are estimated to have died as a result of exposure to the radiation, though assessments of the precise human toll vary. Some 600,000 people involved in the clean-up operation — known as “liquidators” — were exposed to high levels of radiation.

A 2005 UN report put the number of confirmed and projected deaths at 4,000 in the three worst-affected countries. Greenpeace in 2006 estimated that the disaster had caused close to 100,000 deaths.

Russian strikes across Ukraine killed three people and wounded at least four others, Ukrainian officials said Sunday.

In the northeastern Ukraine border region of Sumy, a Russian drone attack killed two civilians, according to the head of Sumy’s regional military administration.

“The enemy struck civilians in the territory of Bilopillia community — near one of the settlements, less than five km from the state border with the Russian Federation,” Oleg Grygorov said in a post on Telegram.

He said two men aged 48 and 72 were killed.

Drone and artillery attacks in the central-eastern city of Dnipro, meanwhile, killed one person and wounded four more, the region’s military administration head Oleksandr Ganzha said, adding that homes and vehicles were damaged.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia had fired 144 drones overnight, of which 124 were downed.

Earlier Sunday, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol in Russian-annexed Crimea said a man was killed in a vehicle during a Ukrainian drone attack that damaged several homes and a dance school in different neighbourhoods of the port city.

The governor said Russia shot down 43 drones in the attack.

On Saturday, Ukrainian authorities said at least eight people were killed in Dnipro, which was hit by waves of Russian strikes for 20 hours straight.

ANEWS wp:paragraph