Twenty-eight years after its Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded, Ukraine confronts a nuclear specter of a different kind: the possibility that the country¡¯s reactors could become military targets in the event of a Russian invasion.
Speaking at the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague in March, Andrii Deshchytsia, Ukraine¡¯s acting foreign minister, cited the ¡°potential threat to many nuclear facilities¡± should events deteriorate into open warfare.
Earlier in the month, Ihor Prokopchuk, Ukraine¡¯s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, circulated a letter to the organization¡¯s board of governors warning that an invasion could bring a ¡°threat of radiation contamination on the territory of Ukraine and the territory of neighboring states.¡± In Kiev, Ukraine¡¯s parliament responded by calling for international monitors to help protect the plants as the cash-strapped government attempts to boost its own efforts.
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