President: Some Chernobyl defenders still held in Russian captivity

President Volodymyr Zelensky made this statement during the International Chernobyl Conference on Recovery and Nuclear Safety, according to a Ukrinform correspondent.

“Unfortunately, some of our Ukrainian men, including members of the National Guard of Ukraine who were guarding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, are still being held captive in Russia. We have already managed to bring many of them home, but, unfortunately, some are still there, in Russian captivity. We remember them, and we will definitely bring them back,” said the head of state.

Zelensky noted that in 2022, the Russians attempted to advance on Kyiv through the Exclusion Zone.

“They dug military positions here in the closed forests, drove military vehicles across this land, set up artillery here, and fired from here. They destroyed equipment and mocked our people working at the Chernobyl plant and related facilities,” he emphasized.

The President noted that the world had drawn conclusions from the Chernobyl disaster—security, political, and moral—but no one could have expected that decades after the tragedy, after everything countries had done to ensure radiation safety and protect lives, someone would want to turn the facilities in the Chernobyl area and the Exclusion Zone itself into a war zone. 

“The scariest thing is that when the Russians came to Chernobyl, it turned out they had absolutely no idea where they were or what had happened here. It’s important to understand this about today’s Russia, about this state, about what remains of their culture, and about how they treat people, how they treat life in general,” the President stated. 

As reported by Ukrinform, today marks the 40th anniversary of the largest man-made disaster in human history—the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. 

Serhii Tarakanov, Director General of the State Specialized Enterprise “Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant,” previously noted that one employee of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and five National Guard soldiers who were guarding the facility remain in Russian captivity.