“The era of nuclear blackmail must end. Any use of nuclear weapons, or targeting nuclear facilities, would create a catastrophic war-crime against humanity.” – Adi Roche

The Voluntary CEO of the Chernobyl Children International (CCI) charity, Adi Roche, is calling for diplomatic measures to be urgently taken in the hopes of brokering peace as the intensifying nuclear threat is putting the world on the precipice of a ‘humanitarian Armageddon’.
Roche’s call for peace comes as the situation at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia, becomes increasingly volatile and unpredictable, as it is remains an active combat zone. Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelesnky, claimed on Tuesday that occupying Russian forces had placed explosives on the roof of two of the reactors at Zaporizhzhia, in the midst of evacuating it’s own staff.

“The Cuban Missile crisis brought humanity to the brink of annihilation, but was de-escalated through dialogue, diplomacy, and negotiation. Now, once more, we can hear the nuclear sabres rattling. Nuclear nightmares have no end. We need to act on peace now, before it’s too late. Any use of nuclear weapons, or targeting of power plants, needs to be stopped immediately”, Roche continued.

Roche also welcomed and supported the call by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern for the United Nations to deploy UN Observers and monitoring and verification missions to Zaporizhzhia ‘in order to help prevent a further catastrophe of global significance.’. Ahern’s appeal was made to Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council via peace-building NGO, Nizami Ganjavi International Centre on Monday;
“The UN Security Council should pass a resolution to delay a UN observer corps around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, to prevent interference with the proper management and operation of the plant, including any threat of a false-flag or other act of sabotage”

Roche’s support of Ahern’s appeal to have a permanent UN observation corps at Zaporizhzhia, comes as the political instability magnified the nuclear threat to unprecedented levels over the past week.

Since the beginning of the war and the invasion of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in February 2022, CCI have been advocating for all nuclear facilities be deemed a ‘No War Zone’ and for World Leaders to invoke the Hague Convention which defines any attack on a nuclear facility to be a ‘war crime’.