Zelensky: 'With Moscow in Chernobyl world on the verge of catastrophe'

The Russian occupation of Chernobyl at the beginning of the war was "very, very dangerous".

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, tells of a risk that has been thwarted but still feared and that for weeks has left half the world in suspense.

Now the power plant and its reactors are back under control, the radioactivity levels are "normal", is the reassurance that comes on the anniversary of the nuclear disaster that is etched in everyone's memory.

On April 26, 1986, the deaths were at least 30, followed by thousands of victims over the years due to diseases linked to the accident.

Only evoking it still generates anxiety and terror and when Moscow at the beginning of the war with Ukraine took control of it, the red alert immediately went off.

Meanwhile, the world is trying to strengthen the control system to avoid the worst.

Providing equipment, carrying out radiological assessments and restoring safeguard monitoring systems is the goal of the mission that brought the leaders of the international agency to the border between Ukraine and Belarus.

It is a matter of giving "assistance" to Kiev, explains the organization, and hoping that this will serve to put in place a safety net sufficient to avoid flaws in the system.

There are 15 operational reactors in Ukraine in four different nuclear power plants, including that of Zaporizhzhia.

But just today two Russian missiles flew low over the site of this plant: a huge risk because if they hit the plants a new "nuclear catastrophe" would materialize,

Russia's capture of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the early stage of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine has pushed the world to the brink of disaster.

Ukrainian President Zelensky is convinced of this.

"The world was once again on the brink of disaster, because for the Russian army, the Chernobyl area and the plant were like a normal battlefield, a territory where they didn't even try to worry about nuclear safety," Zelensky said during a press conference with the head of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi.