Have any high-level EU politicians said what the response would be if Russia damages an Ukrainian nuclear reactor, releasing a massive radiation wave?

Question

The questions seem less than theoretical, with news reports of a fire at Ukrainian nuclear reactor (at Zaporizhzhia), which can't be extinguished due to fighting. (N.B. insofar the fire is localized to a "training building".)

So if Russia triggers another Chernobyl in Ukrainian territory, what if any reaction does the EU envisage? Have there been any statements?

Just saw this; and yes the UK is no longer an EU member: “The office of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he will seek an emergency UN Security Council meeting after Russian troops attacked Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and sparked a fire.” And “The Prime Minister said the reckless actions of Putin could now directly threaten the safety of all of Europe. He said [the UK] would do everything it could to ensure the situation did not deteriorate further.” — Giacomo1968, Mar 04 '22 at 04:55
@Giacomo1968: The UNSC can't do anything useful here, because Russia has a veto. I'm not entirely sure what Johnson is trying to accomplish. — Kevin, Mar 04 '22 at 05:09
@Kevin Establishing a history of Russia refusal which can lead up to actions taken later on. — Giacomo1968, Mar 04 '22 at 05:13
It might be difficult to find any politician making a clear statement in this regard, because politicians usually refuse to answer hypothetical questions — Philipp, Mar 04 '22 at 08:08
@Philipp: Putin has been discussing a lot of hypotheticals these days, even when nobody is asking him those questions. The reality is that politicians don't answer questions (hypothetical or otherwise) when it doesn't suit them to answer. Otherwise, they'll happily volunteer answers even to hypothetical questions that weren't even asked. (And there's a certain similarity with how Japanese politicians/diplomats were openly discussing hypotheticals at one point https://www.jstor.org/stable/3638003). — the gods from engineering, Mar 06 '22 at 09:47

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 04 '22 at 16:02

There will be a strong condemnation.

I am basing this highly scientific guess based on the strong condemnation of the recent attacks of Russia on the Ukrainian nuclear power plants (NPPs). Specifically, Zaporizhzhia and Chornobyl NPPs are captured by the Russian forces. See below.

REFERENCES:

4 hr 1 min ago "We strongly condemn" attack on Ukrainian nuclear plant, says French minister From CNN’s Xiaofei Xu in Paris

France strongly condemns Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the country's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters in Brussels on Friday.

“We strongly condemn this damage to the integrity of a nuclear structure,” Le Drian said.

“We fully support the International Atomic Energy Agency’s initiative to demand Russia to stop all assaults of this kind.”

Le Drian also tweeted on Friday his full support for IAEA’s initiatives to monitor the situation of Ukrainian civilian nuclear facilities.

“The bombings last night that hit the Zaporizhzhia power plant are dangerous and unacceptable,” he said in a Twitter post.

Le Drian is in Brussels for a meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers which he said will be an occasion to show the allies’ unity to continue isolating Russia in the international community.

He joins a chorus of global leaders who have criticized the strikes on the Zaporizhzhia plant, where a fire that had threatened potential disaster was extinguished in the early hours of Friday morning, according to Ukraine's nuclear regulator.

And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia's efforts to take over the massive nuclear power plant was "terror at an unprecedented level."

"The Russian tanks knew that they were firing with a direct fire at the station," Zelensky alleged.

Zelensky drew parallels with the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the world's worst-ever nuclear accident, but there is no indication that any of the reactors at Zaporizhzia have been affected by the shelling.

CNN’s Tim Lister, Sharon Braithwaite and Manveena Suri contributed reporting to this post.

CNN, March 4, 2022: https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-putin-news-03-04-22/h_26eb785bbb6172a35689c3e22b57198f

Have any high-level EU politicians said what the response would be if Russia damages an Ukrainian nuclear reactor, releasing a massive radiation wave?

1 Answers1