It isn’t as though the people of Ukraine haven’t enough to worry about. Now — 39 years after the disastrous explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant — they’re grappling with the question of how to repair the massive hole created by a Russian drone attack on the top of the confinement shelter . . . the structure that is the only thing preventing further deadly contamination from escaping into the environment.

Thus far, there has been no increase detected in radiation levels outside the shield since the drone strike on February 14th of this year. But beneath the shield, the original sarcophagus that was built to encase the debris following the explosion is crumbling. And, according to Shaun Burnie, a nuclear expert with Greenpeace, radiation levels are “ . . . so high next to the actual sarcophagus, the reactor unit, that you can’t work above it. It’s a very, very serious, enormous challenge for Ukraine at a time when it’s faced with so many other challenges, and so the international community really needs to step in and support.” [Stuart Greer and Oleh Haliv, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, April 26, 2025.]

The confinement structure was completed in 2019 by a 45-nation cooperative project costing $2.2 billion. It was predicted by the United Nations to “make the reactor complex stable and environmentally safe for the next 100 years.” [Id.]

But the U.N. hadn’t counted on Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine just three years later, or his indiscriminate firing of missiles and drones in all directions.

I’ve written of my experiences in Kyiv in 1993 — seven years after the Chernobyl disaster — when simply breathing the air caused a severe sore throat that persisted until I left Ukraine. I shudder to think of what might happen — not only to the people of Ukraine, but to the entirety of Europe and beyond — if this damage isn’t repaired and the older sarcophagus begins to leak.

Greenpeace’s Burnie points out that repairs will be costly, and Ukraine will need funding from the international community. The damage is currently being assessed, but Burnie says:

“They have to come up with a longer-term plan, which will be very extensive, very complicated, and potentially horrendously expensive.” [Id.]

Since this massive problem is just one more “gift” from Vladimir Putin to the people of Ukraine, I have a suggestion for him:

“You broke it; you fix it.”

And don’t try to whine that Russia can’t afford it. All you have to do is end the war that you started.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/26/25