Why Did Russia Seize The Disused Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant?

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ABC NewsNews HomeMore Ukraine-Russia newsShareShare articleWhy did Russia seize the disused Chernobyl nuclear power plant?

• By Will Jackson

• Topic:World Politics

Fri 25 Feb 2022Friday 25 February 2022Fri 25 Feb 2022 at 1:04amLoading...abc.net.au/news/why-russia-seized-chernobyl-nuclear-power-plant/100859766Link copiedShareShare article

The infamous Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine has reportedly been captured by Russian forces as part of Moscow's invasion of its neighbour.

Key points:

• Chernobyl is close to the border with Belarus and directly north of Ukraine's capital Kyiv

• Russia has made no official statement on its intentions for the Chernobyl site

• Ukraine's government, anonymous Russian military sources and experts have all posited different explanations to why Moscow captured the facility

The remaining activities around the plant where Europe's worst nuclear disaster occurred in 1986 include nuclear waste management and storage, according to the State Specialized Enterprise Chernobyl NPP.

"Ukraine has informed the IAEA that 'unidentified armed forces' have taken control of all facilities of the State Specialized Enterprise Chornobyl NPP, located within the Exclusion Zone," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement.

"The counterpart added that there had been no casualties nor destruction at the industrial site."

The Chernobyl disaster in then-Soviet Ukraine sent clouds of nuclear material across much of Europe in 1986 after a botched safety test in the fourth reactor of the plant.

Decades later, it became a tourist attraction. About a week before the Russian invasion, the Chernobyl zone was shut down for tourists.

Ukraine's government, anonymous Russian military sources and experts have all posited different explanations of why Russia captured the site, including its value as a threat, as a possible weapon for Ukraine and its location.

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'A totally pointless attack'

Moscow has not made any official comment on its intentions with the former power station site.

However, a Russian security source told Reuters that Russia wanted to control the Chernobyl nuclear reactor to signal to NATO not to interfere militarily.

Russian forces massed in the Chernobyl "exclusion zone" in Belarus before crossing into Ukraine, the same source said.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office, said the seizure of the site was "one of the most serious threats in Europe today".

"It is impossible to say the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is safe after a totally pointless attack by the Russians," he said.

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Exclusion zone left border 'unprotected'

Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, said Chernobyl was attacked because it was perceived as a weak spot in Ukraine's defences.

"This zone is not protected because there is radiation, nobody lives there," he said. 

"They now came through this particular unprotected part of our borders through the Russian territory."

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A statement of Russia's 'military power'

Julie Bishop, who was Australia's foreign minister when MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, said the capture of Chernobyl was about sending a message to the rest of the world. 

"It seems [Putin] is threatening any nation that might seek to support Ukraine," Ms Bishop said.

"The capture of Chernobyl makes no sense unless Putin is trying to warn the world Russia is a nuclear power."

Is Russia protecting it from 'accidents'?

However, Alexey Muraviev, a national security and strategic expert at Curtin University, said the Russians targeted Chernobyl because it was a strategic asset near the border that they wanted to protect. 

"The Russians just want to ensure — and I know it sounds a bit uncomfortably strange when you're talking about an invasion force — that nuclear safeguards are in place and they will not be responsible for any accidents," he said.

Read more about the Russia-Ukraine war:

• Ukraine ready to accept ceasefire as US restores intelligence sharing
• Analysis: How Zelenskyy may have outwitted Putin
• Russia yet to commit to US-brokered ceasefire with Ukraine

Find all our coverage of the war on our Ukraine topic page

"Also, they won't give the Ukrainians a potential opportunity to blow up the damaged reactor number four, which blew up back in April 1986, as an act of defensive deterrence in the form of contaminating the areas to halt the rapid advance of the Russian military." 

Dr Muraviev was also sceptical of Mr Prystaiko's statement that Chernobyl was "not protected" as he said military forces were usually trained to operate in radiation-affected areas. 

The site is a 'stepping stone to Kyiv'

John Blaxland, a professor of international security and intelligence studies at ANU's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, said Chernobyl was likely taken because of its location on the way to Ukraine's capital, Kyiv.

"If you're coming down from the north, from Belarus, but mostly from just in the Russian corner, the border between Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, you're passing through Chernobyl," he said. 

"So that's basically the pathway down and this is indicative of where they're going.

"Kyiv is the target it would appear and that's critical. 

"If what we're seeing — what Vladimir Putin is saying is substantively supported by his action — that's what we're going to see. 

"This is a stepping stone towards Kyiv."

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Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, agreed that was the most likely reason.

"I think there has to be concern that any heavy fighting in that immediate vicinity could potentially cause a new nuclear disaster," he said. 

"But I don't think the Russians sought to control Chernobyl for the sake of controlling Chernobyl — it's more a point of controlling Chernobyl as a key location to support the advance on Kyiv."

Dr Davis added that it didn't make sense for Russia to use Chernobyl as a threat when Moscow already had nuclear weapons. 

He said tactical nuclear weapons were a more controlled approach than blowing up a reactor.

"Blowing up a reactor could spew radiation all over Europe, including into Russia," he said.

James Acton, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank, told Reuters that Russia's capture of Chernobyl was not to protect it from further damage.

He said Ukraine's four active nuclear power plants presented a greater risk than Chernobyl, which sits within a vast "exclusion zone" roughly the size of Luxembourg.

"Obviously an accident within Chernobyl would be a big issue. But precisely because of the exclusion zone, it probably wouldn't impinge on Ukrainian civilians very much," Mr Acton said.

ABC and wires

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