Chernobyl Roulette: War in the Nuclear Disaster Zone

A harrowing account of Russia’s occupation of the Chernobyl and Zaporizhia nuclear power plants, and the dangers of nuclear power colliding with warfare.

On February 24, 2022, the first day of Russia’s all-out attack on Ukraine, armored vehicles approached the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. Russian occupation of the plant, which would last thirty-five days, had begun.

Only the dedication and resolve of Ukrainian personnel, who were held hostage and worked shifts for weeks instead of days, spared the world a new Chernobyl accident. They had to make life-or-death decisions on cooperation or resistance, balancing loyalty to their families, their homeland, and innocent civilians in Ukraine and beyond who would suffer the consequences of a nuclear accident should it occur. The choices they made helped to save the world from another Chernobyl disaster.

Meanwhile, a much more dangerous situation developed at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, the largest such facility in Europe. Following an attack there in March 2022, the Russian military remains in control, and Ukrainian intelligence warns of the potential for nuclear terrorism. We must face up to a new reality: there has already been warfare at two nuclear sites, and others are vulnerable.

In a book that reads like a thriller, Serhii Plokhy, a leading historian of the Cold War and Ukrainian history, joins the stories of the Russo-Ukrainian War and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster to sound the alarm about the dangers of nuclear sites in a time of heightened conflict. There are 440 such sites around the globe today, and Russia’s aggression against Ukraine will not be the last war in human history. The story of the men and women of Chornobyl is more than recent history: it is also a glimpse into the not-so-distant future.

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Serhii Plokhy is a professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University. Author of Chernobyl Roulette, he is a leading authority on the history of the Cold War. He lives in Burlington, Massachusetts.