Further calls for Chernobyl region to be declared a 'no-war zone' on 36th anniversary of the disaster 

Thirty-six years on from the world’s worst nuclear disaster, Cork-headquartered charity Chernobyl Children International (CCI) has expressed concern over reports of an alarming rise in radioactivity due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, which the charity fears could result in a second Chernobyl disaster.

Speaking in advance of UN Chernobyl Remembrance Day today, CCI voluntary CEO, Adi Roche said the Russian invasion of Ukraine “signified a catastrophic change in modern warfare as we know it”.

“During the recent Russian Army occupation of the Chernobyl nuclear facility and radioactive exclusion zone, the world was essentially held to ransom, and the subsequent effects of the military takeover of the nuclear plant and environs have been devastating.

“The people living in the Chernobyl region, a highly radioactive contaminated zone, are facing a war within a war... a nightmare scenario with potentially devastating implications for Europe, and indeed the world,” Ms Roche continued.

CCI say while it is a welcome development that Russian troops have left the Chernobyl region for now, there is no guarantee that they will not return.

The charity also expressed concerns over reports that Russian troops may have laid a maze of landmines in the surrounding areas of Chernobyl as they retreated.

Ms Roche said the radioactive footprint of the Chernobyl disaster "is embedded in our world forever" and millions of people continue to be impacted. 

“The recent military activity at Chernobyl is further proof that Chernobyl remains an unfolding disaster,” she continued.

UN Chernobyl Remembrance Day is a poignant day for Chernobyl survivor, Raisa Miknovitch Carolan, who is profoundly troubled by the ongoing war.

“As a victim of the first generation of those affected by Chernobyl, I am deeply worried for all the children of today that are now seriously threatened by the re-release of radiation in the Chernobyl region, and I plead with those in power to heed these dire warnings,” she said.

CCI is calling for an immediate evacuation of those who are trapped in the Chernobyl region and is also calling on the Irish Government to lobby the UN to declare that any attack on Chernobyl or any other Ukrainian nuclear facilities, be deemed a most heinous war crime, and for the region to be declared a ‘no war zone’.