Adi Roche: Ukraine war shows Chernobyl risk has not evaporated 

Russia’s cavalier actions at Ukraine’s nuclear power plants should be classified as war crimes and risk causing armageddon, writes Adi Roche as she pleads for peace and an end to the war

A Russian firing position sits adjacent to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near Chernobyl, Ukraine. Picture: AP 

On February 24, 2022, exactly one year ago today, Chernobyl re-entered centre stage for all the wrong reasons. News of the Russian invasion of Ukraine came spilling menacingly into our lives, telling us that troop movement en route to Kyiv came via the world's most toxic environment — the dreaded ‘Chernobyl Exclusion Zone’. 

This shocking invasion, driving thousands of troops, personnel carriers, and other deadly weapons, enormous tanks and artillery, all careening through the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, signified to the world that the nature of modern warfare had changed forever.