Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine started a new kind of nuclear war

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Ukraine’s nuclear power plants were turned into a battleground in 2022, as Russian invaders sought to occupy a key resource

Environment

14 December 2022

By Matthew Sparkes

TOPSHOT - Ukrainian Emergency Ministry rescuers attend an exercise in the city of Zaporizhzhia on August 17, 2022, in case of a possible nuclear incident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant located near the city. - Ukraine remains deeply scarred by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, when a Soviet-era reactor exploded and streamed radiation into the atmosphere in the country's north. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine was occupied in the early days of the war and it has remained in Russian hands ever since. (Photo by Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP) (Photo by DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images) — A Ukrainian exercise in the city of Zaporizhzhia on 17 August, in case of a possible nuclear incident at the nearby power plant

AFP via Getty Images

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February was an extraordinary event for many reasons, yet it also marked a dangerous first in the history of warfare: a country with a large and advanced network of nuclear power plants was turned into a battleground.

Ukraine contains Chernobyl, the infamous site of the 1986 reactor disaster, as well as Europe’s largest nuclear plant, Zaporizhzhia. In all, Ukraine has the seventh …

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