a Chernobyl employee tells about the Russian occupation and the negotiations to save the nuclear power plant

What happened at the Ukrainian Chernobyl nuclear power plant when it was occupied for 35 days by the Russian army? At the time, Ukraine feared that the Russians would cause a nuclear catastrophe with tragic consequences for all of Europe. In the end it didn’t happen. In large part thanks to the employees of Chernobyl who ensured the safety of the plant despite the Russian occupation.

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“On February 23 at 8:45 p.m., I took up my post for twelve hours as usual and I did not leave it for 45 days”, says Valery Semyonov. This engineer in charge of safety at Chernobyl found himself trapped in the plant from the start of the Russian invasion. “On February 24 around 5 p.m., I noticed on my surveillance cameras clouds of smokeexplains the engineer. There were two troop carriers, trucks and a tank from which Russian soldiers got out.”

The fighting will be very short because both the Ukrainians and the Russians are aware of the colossal risk if a shell were to fall on the plant. So they will work together, even when the war deprives Chernobyl of crucial electricity for its cooling and diesel runs out for emergency generators.

“So we said to the Russians, ‘You’re keeping us busy, so it’s up to you to deal with this problem!'”

Valeriy Semionov, engineer in charge of safety at Chernobyl

at franceinfo

“They brought back four tankers of diesel on the first dayreports the engineer. Except that we told them that we needed 27 tons per day. So after the fourth day without electricity, they gave us an ultimatum. Either we agreed to connect the plant to the Belarusian electricity grid, or they stopped the supplies. We had to accept.”

Valeriy says he is convinced that the diesel supplied by the Russians is the one that failed their tanks to invade kyiv and that Chernobyl indirectly saved the Ukrainian capital.