Zelensky warns of new Chernobyl disaster as Ukraine marks anniversary

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned against a repeat of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, as the country marked the anniversary of the 1986 disaster at the power plant.

"Europe's largest nuclear power plant near Zaporizhzhya has already been in the hands of Russian terrorists for 785 days," the head of state wrote on Telegram on Friday.

He urged the international community to exert pressure on Russia to bring the power plant back under Ukrainian control.

"And that all nuclear objects in Ukraine are safe from Russian attacks," Zelensky wrote, adding that alone would save the world from a new nuclear catastrophe.

At the same time, Zelensky recalled the people who were involved in the nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl power plant 38 years ago. "Tens of thousands of people, at the cost of their health and their lives, stopped the Chernobyl disaster from spreading and helped to eliminate its terrible consequences in 1986 and in the years that followed."

Zelensky also recalled that the decommissioned power plant was under Russian control for 35 days after the Russian invasion. "Russian soldiers robbed the laboratories, took the guards prisoner and humiliated the staff," the head of state wrote.

On April 26, 1986, reactor four of the then-Soviet nuclear power plant Chernobyl in northern Ukraine exploded.

The accident is considered the largest nuclear disaster in the civilian use of nuclear power.

Due to the radioactivity, large areas of land around the nuclear power plant in what is now Ukraine and neighbouring Belarus were closed off and tens of thousands of people were forcibly relocated.