(Kyiv) New fires have broken out in the area of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, occupied by Russian forces, according to the Ukrainian authorities who have called for the “demilitarization” of the sector under the aegis of the UN.
Posted at 8:22 p.m.
Updated at 9:56 p.m.
“Significant fires have started in the exclusion zone, which can have very serious consequences,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on her Telegram account on Sunday evening.
“However, it is now impossible to fully control and extinguish the fires due to the capture of the exclusion zone by the occupying Russian forces,” she added.
“Therefore, we demand that the UN Security Council take immediate steps to demilitarize the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone,” the official continued.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Sunday that the security situation at Ukraine’s nuclear power plants remained unchanged. She had estimated last week that the forest fires around Chernobyl did not pose a major radiological risk.
The IAEA has ceased, since March 9, to receive live data from Chernobyl. She worried Sunday about the lack of staff turnover at the plant since March 20.
The plant was taken by the Russian army on February 24, the first day of the invasion.
The plant’s number 4 reactor exploded in 1986, causing the worst civilian nuclear disaster in history. It is covered with a double sarcophagus, one built by the Soviets and now damaged, the other, more modern, inaugurated in 2019.
The plant’s other three reactors were gradually shut down after the disaster, the last in 2000.