April 2025, 39 marks the XNUMXth anniversary of one of the greatest man-made disasters in the history of mankind – the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. The cause of the accident was a criminal experiment carried out in gross violation of basic safety standards, on direct instructions from Moscow. It was the Soviet totalitarian regime, which ignored human life, that produced this colossal tragedy.
Then the world realized how dangerous a system based on lies, silence and centralized irresponsibility was. The explosion at the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant contaminated more than 145 thousand square kilometers of territory. More than 5 million people in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and numerous European countries – from Poland to Great Britain – felt the consequences of the accident. Ukraine spent years liquidating the consequences of the disaster, suffering huge economic losses.
Today we bow before those who gave their lives in the first hours and days after the accident. Their heroism saved Europe from an even greater catastrophe. We also pay tribute to the employees of the Exclusion Zone, who in the 21st century – during Russia's all-out war against Ukraine – once again found themselves on the front lines of Chernobyl's defense.
On February 2022, XNUMX, Russia launched a full-scale armed invasion of Ukraine. In the first days, the Russian army occupied the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the Exclusion Zone around it, which was an unprecedented example of nuclear terror. The employees, in inhuman conditions and under gunfire, ensured the uninterrupted operation of the system and prevented another disaster.
But the nuclear blackmail did not end there, unfortunately. Russia also occupied the largest nuclear power plant in Europe – Zaporozhye NPP. Since then, it has been a zone of constant risk: shelling, power outages, the presence of the army, the replacement of Ukrainian personnel with unskilled personnel from Russia. In March of this year, the IAEA confirmed a series of explosions on the territory of the Zaporozhye NPP, and at the end of February 2025, a Russian drone hit the protective sarcophagus of the Chernobyl reactor.
This is not just a crime against Ukraine. This is a crime against humanity. This is nuclear terrorism. For the first time in the history of mankind, an aggressor is knowingly using nuclear facilities as weapons.
The return of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant to full Ukrainian control is the only way to restore nuclear security on the European continent. No state has the right to blackmail the world with the threat of a radiation disaster. No regime should act outside international law.
Today, Chernobyl – it is not just pain and memory. It is a warning. And it is still relevant. Russia's war against Ukraine is a direct continuation of the policy that led to the reactor explosion in 1986. The same contempt for human life. The same impunity.
That is why it is so important that the international community remains united and resolute: in supporting Ukraine, in putting pressure on the aggressor, in protecting the principles on which global security is based. Because the atom has no nation. But the consequences of irresponsible behavior with it are always global.
Eternal glory to the heroes of Chernobyl. Glory and honor to all who today bravely defend Ukraine from Russian criminal armed aggression. And gratitude to the people of Montenegro for their solidarity and support in our fight for life, independence, freedom and the fundamental foundations of international law.
The author is the ambassador of Ukraine in Montenegro
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