The leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church said on Friday that the war is an irreversible attack on God’s creation.
Speaking as Russian forces seized Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk called for renewed efforts to end the conflict.
“I would like to address all those who care for the environment, those who care for the ecological awareness of humanity. It is necessary to do everything to stop this war immediately,” he said in a video message on 4 March.
“This is not only becoming a humanitarian catastrophe before our very eyes. It is an irreversible attack on God’s creation that for decades, for centuries, will be impossible to correct. Ukraine already experienced Chernobyl. Now it stands on the threshold of a new atomic threat that can be 10 times worse.”
A fire broke out overnight at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility, the largest of its kind in Europe, amid Russian shelling.
During the offensive, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that if the plant blew up, the disaster would be “10 times larger” than Chernobyl. The nuclear accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine on April 26, 1986, is regarded as the worst in history.
The blaze was put out and the plant in southeastern Ukraine was working normally on Friday, reported Reuters.