Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that Russian forces are attempting to seize control of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, raising concerns. 

“Russian occupation forces are trying to seize the Chernobyl [Nuclear Power Plant]. Our defenders are sacrificing their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated,” Mr  Zelensky tweeted.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry had earlier tweeted that an attack on Ukraine by Russia could “cause another ecological disaster.”

“In 1986, the world saw the biggest technological disaster in Chernobyl,” the ministry tweeted. “If Russia continues the war, Chernobyl can happen again in 2022.”

Reports note that Russian soldiers invading from Belarus in the north had entered the exclusion zone around Chernobyl, as well as a possibility that a nuclear waste storage facility on the site may be destroyed, according to an adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry. 

The attacks comes a day after a Ukrainian nuclear safety expert raised concerns over the dangers posed by nuclear power plants and waste storage facilities across the country.

Nuclear safety expert Dmytro Gumenyuk told i news exclusively that while a direct attack is unlikely, military invasion raises the risk of possible accidental hits from missiles or artillery. 

Mr Gumenyuk said Ukraine’s nuclear power plants would pose a risk of radioactive pollution in Europe if caught in the crossfire of a Russian invasion

If this happens, Mr Gumenyuk said radiation could contaminate air, soil and waterways, affecting not only Ukraine but also Russia and much of Europe. 

Ukraine has 15 nuclear reactors in four power plants, which provide 52 per cent of the country’s electricity: Khelnitsky and Rivne in the northwest, and Zaporizhzhia and the South Ukrainian plantsin the west and south respectively.