Ukraine accuses Russia of 'nuclear terrorism' on 40th anniversary of Chernobyl — BBC News

[0:00] but today marks the 40th anniversary of the chernobyl disaster the first civilian worst [0:06] civilian nuclear disaster in history the blast released radioactive smoke which contaminated [0:12] ukraine belarus and russia and spread across europe memorial events will be held across ukraine [0:19] on sunday let's join our correspondent in kiev jess parker and president zelensky has been [0:25] commenting on this anniversary jess yes president zelensky released a statement on social media [0:34] saying a number of things among them may all the victims of the chernobyl disaster the ukrainian [0:42] pronunciation is chornobyl may they rest in peace but he also raised the issue of of course the fact [0:48] that ukraine and indeed the the site itself is part of an active war zone following russia's full-scale [0:55] invasion of ukraine back in 2022 and president zelensky said that russian drones were regularly [1:03] flying over the plants and of course last year ukraine said a russian drone had actually struck [1:08] this shield that surrounds a nuclear reactor for puncturing a hole in it and further repair works [1:16] are still needed in order to make that safe for the long term so president zelensky raising that [1:21] as well in his communication today it was 40 years ago of course 1986 that in the early hours a safety [1:31] test at nuclear reactor 4 went horribly wrong and as you mentioned there was an explosion spewing [1:36] radioactive material into the air to this day there is an exclusion zone around that plant to go in [1:44] there you need special access we actually did go in there earlier this week we went to the city [1:49] of pripyat which is situated very near the plant but nobody has lived there for 40 years that's a [1:57] protective shield around nuclear reactor 4 where 40 years ago an explosion blasted radioactive material [2:06] into the air last year ukraine said a russian drone had punched a hole in that shield although it's since [2:14] been patched up but it's a reminder this site lies within an active war zone pripyat was held up by [2:24] the soviets as a model thriving city built for workers at the chernobyl nuclear power plant and their [2:31] families this is what's left of the old swimming pool nearly 50 000 people lived here back in 1986 but of [2:39] course that all came to an abrupt end when everyone had to evacuate you can see plants poking up through [2:49] the floor here in a building that used to house a dance hall a radio station a library this place [2:56] once would have been full of life now it's empty silent this ferris wheel is a well-known iconic [3:09] structure that was part of an amusement park in pripyat that was due to have its big opening [3:15] on may the first 1986 but of course that never happened days before disaster struck with the [3:24] explosion at the chernobyl nuclear power plant now picking up on the point about this drone that's [3:33] struck the shell that you just saw in our piece there president zelensky today accusing russia because [3:40] of the drones he says that continue to fly over chernobyl of nuclear terrorism russia has denied any [3:48] claims that it attacked the plant but it is a reminder that this issue of nuclear safety lives on [3:55] in ukraine as this war continues now into its fifth year of course in terms of the commemorations today [4:03] uh and the fact that people will be remembering what happened the official death toll stands at 31 [4:10] people who died in the immediate aftermath of the disaster but of course studies that have looked [4:16] into this uh suggest the death toll and indeed the wider health impacts are much much wider affecting [4:22] many uh more people so i think as people gather today and there was a commemoration in the early [4:28] hours to mark the moment that the disaster happened those victims will be remembered here in ukraine but [4:35] in other places as well and of course a point to pick up on there when we were walking around pripyat [4:42] yes that city was evacuated fairly soon after the disaster but of course there was not a lot of official [4:49] information that came out initially it took a couple of days for the soviet union to acknowledge that there [4:55] had been uh an accident so the soviet union was accused of a cover-up at the time so it's something [5:03] that is still continues to be discussed to this day here in ukraine jess thank you very much jess parker in [5:10] kiev