Twitter users had a lot to say about a TIME magazine article that claimed the collapse of the Kakhovka dam, a hydroelectric power plant that was destroyed days ago in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, could be Ukraine’s Chernobyl.
Ukraine already had a Chernobyl. It was called…Chernobyl.
— Adamas Nemesis (@AdamasNemesis) June 12, 2023
The article, written by Associated Press journalists and Ukrainian experts for TIME magazine, analyzed the negative impact that the dam’s destruction is already having on Ukraine’s environment and how the country may be affected long term.
Social media’s response to the article was quick and critical. While Twitter users did acknowledge the environmental catastrophe caused by the dam’s collapse, they pointed out one glaring issue with the article – Chernobyl is already Ukraine’s Chernobyl.
A view shows service members of pro-Russian troops and tanks during Ukraine-Russia conflict on the outskirts of the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine March 20, 2022 (credit: REUTERS/ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO)…Chernobyl is Ukraine’s Chernobyl. I suppose it could become Ukraine’s other Chernobyl, but that comparison doesn’t make much sense. Radiological incidents don’t have analogues that aren’t themselves radiological incidents.
— R. Scott Troutt (@JonesboroAtty) June 12, 2023
History of disaster in Ukraine
The Chernobyl disaster occured in April 1986 when a chain reaction caused the number four RBMK reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant to melt down and explode. To this day it is considered the world’s worst-ever nuclear accident.
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is located near the cities of Chernobyl and Pripyat, which are in Ukraine. Both cities were impacted tremendously by the nuclear disaster and had to be evacuated within days of the explosion. They are part of what is known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and remain almost entirely abandoned.
At the time of the disaster, Ukraine was the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, one of the republics that was governed by the Russian Soviet Union.
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster had a devasting effect on Ukraine’s environment. High levels of radioactive contamination was found in water and soil, and large numbers of plants and animals died or suffered from mutations and deformities caused by nuclear radiation.
The destruction of the Kakhovka dam is already being considered another environmental catastrophe for Ukraine due to the physical damage caused by flooding along with the contamination from chemicals and pesticides in the reservoir’s runoff.
Twitter users did not hold back
Not being able to go back to Constantinople could become Turkey’s new Istanbul.
— ThePunKing (@The_PunKing) June 12, 2023
While some Ukrainians themselves are drawing comparisons between the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the Kakhovka dam collapse, social media users mocked the TIME article for seemingly forgetting that Chernobyl was in Ukraine and that it was Ukraine that had suffered the most from the disaster.
The Ides of March could become Rome’s Pompeii.
— ThePunKing (@The_PunKing) June 12, 2023
TIME posted a link to their article on Twitter and the comment section was flooded with derisive replies and sarcastic comparisons to other historical disasters.
“Do you think 9/11 became America’s Pearl Harbor?”
– milo of croton-on-hudson, Twitter user
Other users expressed disappointment in the oversight, noting that it was an otherwise well-written article from a Ukrainian perspective.
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