Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on July 9 that leaders of the US-led transatlantic defense alliance NATO should discuss the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant at their upcoming summit.
NATO leaders will meet in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on July 11-12 to tackle a range of topics, from divisions among members over Ukraine's bid to join NATO and Sweden's entry into the alliance to boost its ammunition stockpiles, to reviewing the first defense plans in decades.
Accusing Ukraine of “systematic damage” to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ms. Zakharova said this should be given top priority at the NATO Summit.
“After all, the vast majority of alliance members will be in the directly affected zone” (if something happens at the nuclear power plant), Zakharova said on the Telegram messaging app.
Vilnius is about 1,000 km from Zaporizhzhia – Europe's largest nuclear plant.
A Russian soldier stands guard outside the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, May 2022. Photo: NY Times
Both Moscow and Kiev have accused each other of planning an attack on the nuclear power plant – located on Russian-held territory in the Zaporizhzhia region, close to the front line of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned for days of a serious threat at the facility, most recently saying Russian forces had planted mines on the roofs of some reactors.
However, experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) based at the plant said they had not yet observed any signs of mines or explosives at the plant, but said they also needed more access to get a firm grasp of the situation.
Nuclear power plants are designed to withstand many risks, but no operating nuclear power plant in the world has ever been caught up in a modern war like Zaporizhzhia.
Due to repeated clashes, Zaporizhzhia’s last reactor was shut down last September as a precaution. But external power is still needed to run other critical safety and cooling systems.
Satellite images show six reactors at the Zaporizhzhia complex - Europe's largest nuclear power plant and among the 10 largest in the world. Photo: NY Times
An important fact to consider regarding the risks of nuclear power plant disasters is that “these disasters will not respect political borders, and because the large-scale radiation levels are affected by the wind direction at the time of the accident, it is very difficult to predict how far and to what extent the radiation will spread,” said Dr. Irwin Redlener, an American scholar and disaster expert.
“A major crisis in Zaporizhzhia would be a disaster for Europe and for western Russia,” Redlener told Euronews in April.
“Nothing we can do in the aftermath of such a disaster is as effective as preventing it from happening in the first place,” the expert concluded .
Minh Duc (According to Reuters, Euronews)
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