Russia Plans To Attack Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant, President Zelensky: Radiation Doesn't Know State Boundaries

President Zelensky at the UN General Assembly. (Twitter/@ZelenskyyUa)

JAKARTA - President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia's plans to attack the Ukrainian nuclear power plant and cut it off from the power grid were at risk of causing a nuclear disaster.

"The radiation does not respect national borders," President Zelensky said in a speech at the UN General Assembly's annual hearing in New York United States on Wednesday, quoted by CNN Sept. 26.

As Russia "cannot defeat the resistance of our people on the battlefield," President Zelensky said Russian President Vladimir Putin was "looking for other ways to crush Ukraine's spirits."

Entering its third winter since the war broke out in February 2022, President Zelensky said Russia was stepping up its attack on Ukraine's power grid in a bid to plunge its country into "dark and cold".

In his speech, President Zelensky reminisced about the "terrible" moments in the early weeks of war when Russia's attack on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe's largest PLTN, caused fears among Ukrainians of disasters such as Chernobyl.

"No one can know how Russia's attack on the nuclear facility will end, and everyone in Ukraine is reminded of what Chernobyl means," he said.

Two and a half years later, President Zelensky warned the Russian-occupied nuclear power plant remained "riskful of a nuclear incident." Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the previous incident at the factory. Ukraine owns three other nuclear plants, according to the World Nuclear Association.

CNN previously reported the risk of a large-scale nuclear incident at the PLTN was low, as Ukrainian carriers put the factory reactor into "cold closure" mode since June 2023.

If the factory reactor explodes, the cold reactor will "spread used fuel into the air, which will spread some radiation," William Alberque, Director of Strategy, Technology and Weapons Control at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told CNN.

It will create a radiation zone where "you will have a higher chance of developing cancer over the next 40 years," but will not recreate any visible types of damage after the collapse of an active Chernobyl plant in 1986.

Despite the low risk of large-scale nuclear incidents, the threat to the Ukrainian energy system remains high.

"Russia has destroyed all of our thermal power plants, and most of our hydroelectric capacities," President Zelensky said, adding 80 percent of Ukraine's energy systems had been deactivated by Russian attacks.

However, President Zelensky's speech did not mention Ukraine's hopes of obtaining permission to use Western weapons to strike targets in distant Russian territory.

It is known that President Zelensky's speech at the United Nations was delivered shortly before he was scheduled to discuss a " winning plan" with United States President Joe Biden, which is expected to include Kyiv's long-standing request to use long-range missiles to strike military targets within Russia.