Ecological damage, risk of nuclear accident and the economic fallout from war all affect countries well beyond the conflict zone. How should the world deal with these borderless threats?
Common ground: back-channel negotiations have succeeded in brokering deals including over grain exports.
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While some parts of eastern Ukraine have been under partial Russian control since 2014, other sections continue to fight back. Most residents overall have said they don’t want to be part of Russia.
The last operating reactor at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, reactor No. 6, has been safely shut down.
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The power plant’s sixth reactor has been shut down, all but eliminating the risk of a nuclear meltdown. But fighting at the site could still release radioactive material.
Ukrainian soldiers are counterattacking in the east of the country.
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Artillery shelling, stressed-out technicians and power supply disruptions increase the chances of catastrophe at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest.
The conflict highlights the folly of nations exiting nuclear power while continuing to use coal, gas and oil.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, points to the training facility hit by Russian artillery at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
AP Photo/Lisa Leutner
The world held its collective breath as Russian troops battled Ukrainian forces at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The battle is over and no radiation escaped, but the danger is far from over.
The fire at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine understandably raised the spectre of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. But thankfully this time another nuclear catastrophe was avoided.
Associate Professor of Instruction in the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies, Affiliate Professor at the Institute for Russian, European, and Eurasian Studies, University of South Florida