Circulating Unenlightened, Racist, Bigoted Muslim Views in Canada

 

"Allegations of rape made by Israel are false. It's a lie. Just like every other allegation made by Israel turns out to be a lie, including the mass slaughter of Israeli citizens on the 7th of October. That too was a lie."

"The taking of hostages is a very important part of any strategic sort of military action or act of resistance or the such because for every hostage you can then negotiate."

"Having lunch with the #Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh."

"[Canadian authorities are] under pressure not to admit me [as] my views on Palestine were unacceptable to them."

"I would, frankly, have had more respect for the Canadian immigration authorities had they simply said ... that they were under pressure not to admit me. That my views on Palestine were unacceptable to them. That my criticism of Israel's crimes against humanity was intolerable."

Anas Altikriti, British-Iraqi Muslim activist, member of British Muslim Brotherhood 

Anas Altikriti pictured in 2009. Photo Leon Neal/AFP via Getty Images

 

"Inadmissibility concerns may be identified before a person travels to Canada, at the time that they seek entry to Canada, or after they are already inside Canada."

"Generally speaking, individuals who are found to be inadmissible cannot travel to or enter Canada."

Canada Border Services Agency  

Scheduled to speak by invitation of the Muslim Association of Canada as a keynote presenter at the group's annual convention, his official bio published beforehand identified him as someone of note in the Muslim world: "his work spans public advocacy, political discourse, civil rights and even hostage negotiations". His name, along with those of others on the convention's roster attracted the attention of Canadian Jewish groups sensitive to the potential presence of 'activists' of this man's caliber all of whom have a distinct tendency to slander Israel and falsely charge the Jewish state with slanderous blood libels.

 

Anti-extremist organizations are also on the alert for the presence of those, like Altikriti whose incendiary remarks are beyond controversial. On arrival at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport to begin his visit to Canada at the behest of the Muslim Association, the man was detained, undergoing hours of questioning by border authorities, the end result of which was that he was denied entry to Canada, and was instead escorted onto a flight back to the United Kingdom from whence he had departed. 

"Muslim Brotherhood organisations in the UK – including charities – are connected to counterparts elsewhere in Europe."

"Mab are associated with the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe (FIOE), established by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1989."

"FIOE subsequently created the European Council for Fatwa and Research, another pan-European Muslim Brotherhood body, intended to provide religious and social guidance to Muslims living in Europe."

British Government Report  

MAC Photo

As far as Michal Cotler-Wunsh, of the International Legal forum is concerned, the scheduled gathering in Toronto at the Enercare Centre was in reality a 'Muslim Brotherhood conference'. The Jewish Onliner publication highlighted 2023 comments by Altikriti where his description of the October 7 terrorist attacks in southern Israel  represented a 'lie'. That statement and other supporting statements denying the reality of any such Palestinian terrorist attack on Israel had been published by Britain's The Telegraph.

 

Photographed with Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas member at the time of the attacks of October 7, Altikriti had a very personal relationship with one of the chief strategists of the terrorist group. Other scheduled speakers for the conference were Ebrahim Rasool, a politician with the African National Congress who had hosted a Cape Town memorial for Haniyeh after his 2024 assassination by Israel when the architects of the October 7 atrocity were hunted down by Israel.

 

According to the Jewish Onliner, multiple speakers that were to appear at the conference "have held positions in, or have been publicly linked to, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's political ecosystem". At a previous such Muslim Association of Canada annual conference, an Egyptian-born  preacher, Sheikh Nashaat Ahmed, was a keynote speaker who in social media posts referred to Jews as "descendants of pigs and apes". Which the Muslim Association of Canada explained away as that Muslim scholars occasionally "use the term 'Jews' interchangeably when discussing Israel".

  

MAC Photo

"The upcoming Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) conference is scheduled to platform speakers whose public records raise serious concerns about extremism, terrorist-support networks and incitement. B’nai Brith Canada’s investigation identified 11 scheduled speakers or participants with documented links to five organizations that have been criminally prosecuted, terrorist-designated or formally cited by foreign governments in connection with Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood or other extremist activity. "

"After B’nai Brith Canada shared its findings with federal law enforcement, one of the individuals, Anas Altikriti, who was scheduled to speak at the conference, was denied entry into Canada earlier today."

"MAC’s decision to include these speakers is a serious failure of institutional responsibility. No credible public organization should need outside intervention to identify speakers whose records involve associations with extremist networks, support for terror, criminal charges, incitement and endorsement for “armed jihad.” MAC must explain how this conference program was approved, who reviewed these speakers, and why Canadians were expected to accept this platforming as legitimate community programming. "

B'nai Brith Canada 

Russia Conceding Nothing, Hanging on the Thin Edge of the Wedge

A Russian soldier stands guard at the Luhansk power plant in the town of Shchastya in 2022. Photo by ALEXANDER NEMENOV /AFP via Getty Images

 

"[Ukraine's advancing drone capabilities have allowed a] mid-range strike campaign against Russian logistics, military equipment, and manpower since early 2026."

"Ukrainian forces have intentionally exacerbated other Russian vulnerabilities over the last year, including through the February 2026 block on Russia's use of Starlink terminals in Ukraine and through Ukraine's operational long-range strike campaign against Russian military and oil infrastructure deep in the Russian rear, which significantly disrupted Russian communications on the frontline and drone operations as well as Russia's oil and gas profits."

Institute of Study of War

 

 

This 'special military operation', the Vladimir Putin obsession with forcing Ukraine back into the Soviet Socialist-smothering mode as a satellite of Greater Russia, has cost Russia dearly, but that is obviously not a concern of the Russian warmonger. A newly released investigation has revealed that from 2022 to 2025 an estimated 352,000 Russian servicemen gave up their lives involuntarily for Mr. Putin's claims of rescuing Ukrainians from the stranglehold of neo-Fascism that he claims rules Ukraine. Russia's noble quest to rescue Ukraine, while defending Russia from Ukraine's plans to invade and wreak havoc in Russia on behalf of NATO has failed to impress Ukrainians.

 

It has, though, likely inspired a greater counter-offensive by the Ukrainian military against Russian aggression, a resolve among the Ukrainian leadership that never will Ukraine agree to surrender any of its territory to Russia. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy, the very symbol of resistance to military means to destroy a country's sovereignty has become an inspiration to all of Europe, in particular to the east, knowing that should Putin prevail and Ukraine fail, Putin's agenda lists them next in line for rescue from their unfortunate choice of civilizational democracy.

 

Two exiled Russian publications -- Mediazona and Meduza -- compiled the death tally to coincide with Russia's national holiday celebrating victory over Nazi Germany during the Second World War, a world event that Russia has now itself adopted, visualizing victory over its near-abroad neighbours in a replay of ideology canted to portray itself as a noble nation geared to destroying fascistic tendencies while in fact it is emulating those tendencies while claiming its intended victim idolizes them.

 

A soldier. Stock photo: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

 

With the use of a BBC Russian Service database drawing on publicly reported deaths, including local reports, notices and social media posts by relatives, the figure reflecting Russian soldier deaths was arrived at, with its list of 261,000 Russian soldier names that have been confirmed as victims of the Russian army's 'special military operation'.  Another 90,000 names were extrapolated estimating excess deaths in Russian probate records and those missing or declared dead, by court order.

 

Since the war began in 2022, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, based in Washington, stated that Russian forces suffered close to 1.2 million casualties. Some 325,000 Russian soldiers and 140,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died in the conflict as of 2025, the deadliest conflict since the Second World War, according to their analysis. Russian gains, despite those losses, along the 1,200 km-long front line, have decreased considerably, leaving Moscow to gain less than 1.5 percent over the one-fifth of Ukrainian territory it has struggled to control.

 

Ukraine's spring counter-offensive resulted in a net loss of territory in April for Russia. According to the Economist, Russia's losses amount to 35,000 soldiers monthly, a number that recruitment cannot catch  up with. Following Russia's May 9th Victory Day parade, Putin implied the war would soon end, that the Ukrainian conflict "was coming to an end", despite his pledge that Russia's special military operation would be prolonged until such time as all his demands are met, none of which are remotely conciliatory or concede that the war the Russian President embarked on has been as disastrous to Russia as it was meant to be to Ukraine. 

 

Mediazona

 

 

 

Canada's Multiculturalism Love Affair

"I want to acknowledge the fear and distress this has caused."

"We recognize that Jewish residents have been living with a heightened sense of fear due to repeated incidents targeting their community, and this only adds to that, which is completely unacceptable."

"While the weapons used were imitation firearms, the impact is very real."

"These are criminal acts that we allege were meant to intimidate and cause fear."

Toronto Acting Deputy Police chief Joe Matthews 

 

"We are under attack like never before. Antisemitism, a global virus that has metastasized, finds itself right here on Bathurst Street. A street that my grandparents moved to from Poland in 1921, a street that represents the Jewish community's past, present, and one day will represent the future."

"[Thursday night's shooting] at one of the most revered, respected and holy synagogues in Canada, is totally unacceptable."

"Our government, led by Premier [Doug] Ford, will never accept the normalization of even one act of antisemitism."

"Not only will we call it out, we will work day and night with our police services."

Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner

 

"Heartbroken and furious at the same time over another attack on a Canadian synagogue by thugs who target the innocent at prayer."

"Antisemites are doing this. And governments too spineless to name them or defend what Canada once stood for is giving them the room to flourish."

Melissa Lantsman, deputy leader, federal Conservative Party of Canada 

A police cruiser is shown outside a synagogue in North York where three people were shot at with a replica firearm on Thursday night. (CP24)

 

 It was announced by Toronto police that an 18-year-old man from Vaughan, north of Toronto has been arrested. He is being charged in connection with a shooting at the Chasidei Bobov synagogue in Toronto last Thursday night. The charge and arrest is inclusive of an April 30 shooting that took place in front of another synagogue in an area of the city long known as a Jewish neighbourhood. The man arrested was named as Ruslan Novruzov. In making his announcement to the press, Acting Deputy Police chief Joe Matthews added that the incidents were "deeply concerning, particularly because the victims were visibly identifiable members of our Jewish community".

 

On April 30, three individuals walking in the Jewish neighbourhood near Bathurst Street and Lawrence Avenue West were shot at with a replica firearm, from a vehicle. Of the three, one was hit, as the suspects swiftly drove off in a blue SUV. Early Friday morning, police executed search warrants on a residence and vehicle in Vaughan where Novruzov was arrested and charged with a number of weapons offences. Two  gel blaster imitation firearms were seized.

 

The incident happened around 10:49 p.m. on Thursday at Chasidei Bobov synagogue in the area of Bathurst Street and Hwy. 401. Photo: Peter Dworschak/CityNews.

 

"I am disgusted by the targeted antisemitic attacks that took place in North York over the last several days, including last night outside a synagogue."

"These attacks will not be tolerated and I'm pleased the Toronto police have acted quickly in response and have a suspect in custody."

"I expect that all those who are responsible will be punished to the full extent of the law."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford  

Fine statements of sympathy and support from the province's highest political authority. An authority that has not -- in the past three-and-a-half years since the October 7, 2023 Palestinian terrorist assault on southern Israel led by Hamas that rampaged through farming communities, towns and villages and a nearby music festival to slaughter, rape and torture children, youth, the elderly, entire families in an orgy of sadistic savagery and which ignited a storm of antisemitic claims and threats in Canada through organized Palestinian protests, endangering the Jewish community -- moved to put a strop to these public displays of hatred.

 

Nor, for that matter has the federal government acted in any way to calm the situation, secure the normalcy of civil behaviour of one ethnic/religious/ideological group of Canadians against another. Instead, all levels of government, from Toronto's own municipal council led by its Mayor Olivia Chow, to the provincial government of Premier Doug Ford, to that of the Liberal government of Prime Minister Mark Carney acted to calm the firestorms of ongoing anti-Israel, anti-Jew, pro-Palestinian protests. While declaring their objections on moral grounds to antisemitism, they invariably invoke their rejection of 'Islamophobia'. 

 

The incident took place outside a synagogue on Bathurst Street near Wilson Avenue.   CTV News

 

Lost in the turmoil of never-ending protests -- where choruses of 'Final Solution!', 'Israeli genocide!', and 'Globalize the Intifada', along with threatening marches through Jewish neighbourhoods by scores of keffiyeh-clad, masked protesters was the need to ensure the security of Jewish Canadians whose houses of worship, parochial schools, and Jewish-owned businesses have been vandalized, fire-bombed and shot at -- have responsible government-authority interventions taken place. Group Muslim street prayers, illegally shutting down intersections and roadways have been tolerated. 

 

The large, and growing Canadian Muslim population has the kind of voting heft that the much smaller Canadian Jewish population does not have any longer. The generations of Jewish Canadians that trusted and loved their Canadian home now find themselves marginalized, thanks to the mass migration, emigration and refugee-intake of recent years, of people from Muslim-majority countries who have brought their traditional Jew-hate baggage with them. This is the cultural vigour celebrated in Canada as the benefits of multiculturalism.  

"Know this, if anybody feels that one act of antisemitism is going to be OK, it's not. It's time that everybody in our community, of other faiths, of other heritages, stand together."

"[Non-Jews are welcome to go on the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday], to a synagogue, a Jewish congregation, in our city, and stand outside that congregation in solidarity."

"Stand, raise  your voices. Stand a little stronger for the values of Canada and Ontario that unite us, that bind us one together."

Solicitor-General Michael Kerzner 

 

Keeping the Fiction Alive

In central Tehran, a poster with the words: ‘The Strait of Hormuz remains closed’ spells out Iran’s uncompromising position. EPA/Abedin Taherkenareh

 

"Mojtaba Khamenei, the proclaimed Supreme Leader, has not been seen or heard from directly since February 28, when the U.S. and Israel launched their air campaign."

"One Iranian journalist in Germany claims Mojtaba is dead and that the delay in announcing his death reflects an internal struggle among senior regime figures over control of the vast financial empire worth tens of billions of dollars associated with his father's office."

Winfield Myers, Middle East Forum 

 

"Mojtaba is managing the country as though he is the director of the board."

"He relies heavily on the advice and guidance of the board members, and they collectively make all the decisions."

"The generals are the board members." 

Abdoireza Davari, former senior advisor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 

 

"Mojtaba is not yet in full command or control."

"There is, perhaps, deference to him. He signs off or he is part of the decision-making structure in a formal way."

"But he is presented with fait accompli presentations right now."

Sanam Vakil, director, Chatham House policy institute, London 

 

"Mojtaba is not supreme; he might be leader in name, but he is not supreme the way his father was."

"Mojtaba is subservient to the Revolutionary Guards because he owes his position and he owes the survival of the system to them."

Ali Vaez, Iran director, International Crisis Group 

People ride motorcycles near a billboard featuring an image of Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, amid a ceasefire between U.S. and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, April 20, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS)

 

The absolute power wielded by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as Iran's Supreme Leader is a matter of the past. The IRGC was Khamenei's tool, whatever he ordered they carried through. He was the decision-maker, they implemented his decisions. With his son purportedly now replacing him, the roles have been reversed; while professing to take their direction from Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, it is now the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leaders who are the decision-makers planning the future of the Islamic Republic, and negotiating with the United States for a ceasefire.

 

If he is in actual fact still alive, Mojtaba Khamenei, is in a secret place and  has been there since American and Israeli aerial forces bombed the Khamenei compound the very first day of their Invasion on February 28. Living with his family in that compound, the junior Khamenei lost his wife and son to the bombs that killed his father, and just incidentally, injured him so badly that he has been incommunicado since, cared for by doctors treating his injuries from the airstrikes.

 

The Iran-Iraq war saw a then-17-year old Mojtaba deployed to a brigade of the IRGC, the Habib Battalion. During that war, and through his close association with the Guards and its members, lifetime friendships ensued as battalion members became influential military and intelligence figures, while Mojtaba had followed his father into a theological seminary to graduate with the rank of ayatollah, following which he coordinated military and intelligence operations at his father's compound. A position that brought him ever closer to the IRGC leadership.

 

Rumours had begun circulating not long after the airstrikes that killed his father, that the son, gravely wounded, had succumbed to his injuries and died. That the IRGC, mindful of the influence of a supreme leader assumed to be the voice of Shia Islam with millions of devout followers, was needed to give them the political/religious authority required to continue their enforcing role as custodians of the Islamic Republic. 

 

As matters now stand, it was agreed to acknowledge the grave physical condition that the February 28 airstrike left Mojtaba in. That surgery to amputate one of his legs occurred and he awaits a prosthetic. There were ostensibly other surgeries, but his physical functions are gradually returning though the severe burns on face and lips made it difficult for him to speak clearly, and thus his voice has not been heard. The messages 'written' by him have been circulated widely, for his 'comprehensive intelligence' has not been impaired.

 

Women members of the Basij paramilitary, affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard, march through Tehran with their weapons during a state-organized rally in support of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. (Vahid Salemi/The Associated Press)

 

The story is that messages to him and back from him are discreetly carried hand-to-hand over long distances by trusted couriers. His condition mandated the delegation of decision-making temporarily to the generals for the time being. Nothing has disturbed the power of the IRGC whose elite leaders are known to control vast industrial empires, including the nuclear program of the Islamic Republic. The decision to close the Strait of Hormuz was not Mojtaba's, but it has served the fiction of his commanding role well.

 

The Guards have directed the strategy of attacking Persian Gulf states, and Israel. Those who are said to speak from positions of knowledge maintain that Motaba Khamenei decided since his leadership role was one he had to accustom himself to, to delegate critical decision-making, as per the ceasefire talks to the Guards. The generals now in charge; Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, Yahya Rahim Safavi, Ahmad Vahidi, Mohsen Rezaei, and cleric Hossein Taeb, have a singular goal; to safeguard the existence of the Islamic Republic.

 

And they do so in direct opposition to foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, and president Masoud Pezeshkian concerned with sanctions relief, with the economic losses caused by the war, the need for reconstruction, and to rethink the closure of the Hormuz Strait.  

 

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members at an IRGC ground forces military drill in the Aras area, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran, Oct. 17, 2022. Credit: Fars News Agency

 

 

U.S. First Amendment Guarantees on Free Speech

President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Chief Markwayne Mullins at the White House swearing-in ceremony. Canadian Press

 

"I have long admired the United States for its commitment to free speech." 

"Never in a million years did I think that, after criticizing the U.S. government, I would be targeted with a summons seeking to find out who I am, where I live, where I go, and what I read online."  

"You don't have to be from America to know that this is un-American." 

Canadian 'John Doe'  

 

"Plaintiff John Doe uses a pseudonym online and in this lawsuit to protect his privacy and family."

"Doe regularly posts strongly-worded criticisms of President Trump and his policies on [his] social media accounts, including his account on X."

"His posts have collectively received well over 100,000 views."

"The Trump administration continues to attempt to unmask social media users who criticize the administration -- a transparent gambit to chill speech that the government dislikes." 

"Google has the capacity to collect this information and often does." 

American Civil Liberties Union 

 

"When we receive a subpoena, our review process is designed to protect user privacy while meeting our legal obligations."

"We inform users when their accounts have been subpoenaed, unless under legal order not to, or in an exceptional circumstance."

"We review every legal demand and push back against those that are overbroad or improper, including objecting to some entirely." 

Google spokesperson

An unnamed Canadian is suing the U.S. government after they requested their personal data from Google following criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump on 'X.'  CTV News

 

A legal complaint has been filed against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Secretary Markwayne Mullin, for the purpose of putting a stop to the U.S. government's move to obtain the plaintiff's information from Google. The American Civil Liberties Union, which has taken up the Canadian's suit, explained that the Department of Homeland Security had issued a summons for those records from Google. This followed an online posting criticizing the killing by federal agents of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last January. 

 

The man known as Joe Doe for the purpose of the legal complaint is a Canadian citizen. He lives in Canada, has not taken a trip to the United States in the past decade and has no business or meaningful social contacts with anyone residing in the United States. Despite which, the summons to Google to reveal the man's personal information based its demand on a customs enforcement law. 

 

The Department of Homeland Security issued the Google summons in February of 2026, requesting information linked to the Gmail address of Doe's X account, covering a five-month period. The summons seeks disclosure of "vast swaths of information" inclusive of records relating to John Doe's Gmail and associated accounts; his name, where he lives, information on his physical movements, and records in detail  of websites he visits and people he communicates online with. 

 

In addition to disclosure of "any associated names, residential addresses, telephone numbers and credit card numbers or bank account numbers".

 

A man walks by posters of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, who were both fatally shot by federal agents, in Minneapolis, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

 

 During the first Trump administration, points out the ACLU, it was the Inspector General of DHS itself that concluded DHS officials had improperly undertaken efforts "to unmask social media users, and Twitter filed a lawsuit challenging the practise", through the same legal basis of customs enforcement. The second time around, pointed out the ACLU, a number of social media users filed actions against administrative subpeonas meant to reveal their identities, with a view to obtaining other information relating to them.

 

The Department of Homeland Security thus challenged, sought to defuse the situation, and in response "DHS has withdrawn several subpeonas subjected to such challenges before a court could fully review them". The ACLU points out that the current lawsuit asks the court to invalidate the John Doe summons to make it "clear that the government may not use its customs enforcement authority to seek to identify and intimidate its critics".

 

 

 

 

Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone ... A Theatre of War

"On April 26, 1986, technicians at Unit 4 in Chernobyl, Ukraine, were conducting a test of their RBMK nuclear reactor when they inadvertently started a runaway reaction. Excess, superheated steam built up, the core was blasted open, and a huge plume of radioactive material wafted into the sky. The heat was so intense that it caused the nuclear fuel still in the plant to liquefy, where it mixed with other materials, such as concrete, and formed a lava-like material that flowed into the spaces below. At least 31 people died as an immediate result of the accident, and tens of thousands of people living nearby were evacuated."

"To contain the radiation, the ruined reactor was hastily entombed. Several months after the accident, the destroyed reactor was completely covered with a concrete and steel shell called the sarcophagus." "Authorities declared it would last 'for eternity'."

"But '[t]he sarcophagus began cracking soon after it was built and must be strengthened or replaced. To complicate matters, the sarcophagus is also sinking into the earth, and the ground water is rather near the surface . . .', noted an article in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in September 1992. At that time, a Ukrainian parliament deputy, Vladimir Yavorivsky, called for ideas about what to do, announcing a competition among world scientists to come up with a solution to the failing tomb."

"That was more than 28 years ago."

"Now, finally, a multinational consortium is at the half-way point in building a huge, $1.5 billion, state of the art, all-stainless-steel hangar that will sit over the ruined remains of reactor Unit 4 like the world’s largest Quonset hut. Pictures in the New York Times show an immense and imposing structure whose construction is long overdue."

"Tall enough to house the Statue of Liberty, the new, 32,000-ton hangar is being assembled a few hundred yards away from the still-radioactive site. Once it is finished, it will be rolled into place over the existing sarcophagus—which is starting to show its age. (A portion of the roof over the adjacent turbine collapsed last year, releasing a small amount of radiation.) Once in place, the new structure should contain radioactive dust, preventing any atmospheric contamination should the old sarcophagus collapse. The new building is expected to last anywhere from 100 to 300 years."

"There is still some question as to what to do after the new cover is rolled into place and the site completely sealed up in 2017. Fuel is still contained amid the debris beneath the old sarcophagus; engineers are still undecided as to whether to remove it or leave it in place."

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May 2014 

Credit: eight8 / Adobe Stock

 

"Russia is once again bringing the world to the brink of a man-made disaster — Russian-Iranian Shaheds regularly fly over the [Chernobyl] plant, and one of them struck the confinement last year."

"The world must not allow this nuclear terrorism to continue, and the best way is to force Russia to stop its reckless attacks."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 

Emptied of its human residents following the catastrophic explosion and meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant 40 years ago, the towns that were once home to tens of thousands of people now stand, ghostlike, nature exercising her generative power to encourage flora to grow exuberantly through broken windows where the evidence of a desperate emergency caused people to leave everything and just get out, remain evident in the presence of dishes left unwashed, children's shoes and toys scattered about, silent remnants of human habitation.

 

When people evacuated their homes, their towns and villages on April 26, 1986, the area became an exclusion zone. Even to the present day, high levels of radiation translate to a reality that never again may humans live in the areas affected. Yet these disaster areas now form another function, as a theatrical setpiece for military practise where Ukrainian servicemen trained amidst the ruins of one vibrant-habitation.

 

The elements of defence against irradiated land against Russian attacks, created a double practise for the  soldiers, mindful of avoiding the most radioactive areas, while defending against Russian occupation there. Russian forces  entered the Chernobyl zone in 2022, following the initiation of Vladimir Putin's 

'special military operation'. It was occupied for a five-week period, where Moscow made use of the region as a staging area focused on attacking Kyiv.

 

The recent training exercises saw soldiers crouched along walls covered with mould, aiming their rifles. Live grenades were thrown into homes, further damaging dry-rot crumbling walls. Chernobyl has become an army-controlled security belt along the border with Russian ally Belarus. Fire and radioactive material spewed into the atmosphere in the world's worst nuclear disaster when the plant exploded in 1986. The explosion killed two workers followed by dozens of emergency workers dying from radiation exposure in the weeks that followed. An estimated 200,000 people were relocated.

 

Workers examine the damage to the roof of the New Safe Confinement structure, which was built to contain the radioactive remains of Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, following what Ukrainian officials said was a Russian drone attack in Chernobyl, Ukraine, on February 14 last year. Photo: AP

 

The radioactive towns, villages and forests present as a conundrum to Ukrainian authorities knowing the land cannot be repopulated as a result of long-lived contamination. The issue of using the area however for some useful purpose is being considered, such as use as a storage area for nuclear waste, a test site for  new reactors, a place for solar farm installations, and a disaster tourism destination; the last somewhat ghastly in its exploitation of boundless human curiosity about disasters, natural or human-enhanced. 

 

New risks have emerged, however, as a result of the conflict, where scientists can no longer reach wells to measure groundwater radiation in fear of stepping on land mines. Firefighters are unable to extinguish wildfires that spread radiation through resulting smoke, since the land is littered with mines. The dangers inherent both in the active combat situation and the lurking threat of landmine explosions persuaded foreign scientists studying environmental radiation to flee.

 

The  fragile situation was further endangered when a Russian drone  flew into the huge steel shell enclosing an older rickety structure built over the ruined reactor, in February of 2025. Known as the sarcophagus, the older structure is close to collapsing entirely and when it does there will be another release of radiation. A hole was smashed in the $2.5-billion outer shell by the drone explosion, starting a fire within the New Safe Confinement shell which burned material that maintained the airtight seal. While no radiation escaped, the strike negated two decades of isolating the worst of Chernobyl's radiation. 

 

Fortified against Russian attacks, Chernobyl  remains a military site where tank traps, appearing like X's created from steel beams and coils of  razor wire stretch over fields in the zone where soldiers patrol the overgrown ghost towns. The area commander cautioned that in comparison with destruction Russian forces inflict throughout Ukraine, an attack at Chernobyl could release  more  radiation that would be "on a completely different scale".   

 

A man looks at a memorial dedicated to firefighters and workers who died after the 1986 Chornobyl (Chernobyl) nuclear disaster, ahead of its 40th anniversary in Slavutych, Ukraine, Saturday, April 25, 2026. Chornobyl is the Ukrainian name for the city. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)