Statement from Adi Roche, Founder and Voluntary CEO of Chernobyl Children International:

In the early hours of Sunday, 24 August, a reactor at Russia’s Kursk Nuclear Power Plant was struck by a military drone, resulting in a major fire and once again raising the terrifying prospect of a nuclear catastrophe.  This latest escalation follows a week of heightened military activity and nearby explosions at both the Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia nuclear sites in Ukraine.

I appeal, on behalf of all humanity and as a first-step towards peace negotiations, that all nuclear facilities no longer be targeted, or used as an area of shelling, bombardment, and ground fighting under the Hague Convention.  Nuclear power plants have thousands of tons and gallons of highly radioactive material, which are highly dangerous and volatile, and have no protection in the crossfire of war.

My worst nightmare in this conflict is that the tragedy of the Chernobyl disaster could be re-released on the world.

This war has changed everything.  Never before in the history of the atomic age have nuclear stations been used as weapons of war.  They should remain globally ‘off limits’ because of their lethal potential to destroy the planet.  The weaponising of nuclear facilities has resulted in a collision between warfare and nuclear power, which is a whole new threat with potentially devastating, unimaginable consequences for humankind for centuries to come.  This is nuclear terrorism.

This weaponising of nuclear power signifies to the world that the nature of modern warfare has changed forever, and brings with it a sense of foreboding for wars of the future.

We are playing with nuclear fire.  Any potential explosion or meltdown at a Nuclear Power Plant, by accident or design would cause irreversible damage to the environment and human life that will last for thousands of years.

In the name of humanity, in the name of the children, I once again plead: please stop this war and all wars, and declare that all Nuclear Power Plants as ‘No War Zones.’ “