| Photo by Zaur Ibrahimov on Unsplash
Part II of “Fourteen More Letters to Pope Leo XIV” Series
This is a New Year’s Eve appeal to Pope Leo XIV in the fifth month of his papacy. The United Nations and the diplomatic corps of major countries have failed to forge even a temporary ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Perhaps the Vatican may be able to persuade both the Orthodox Churches of Russia and Ukraine to join an interfaith effort in forging a lasting ceasefire between the two countries. Yes, especially since the current dispute may result in a “nuclear winter”.
On October 29, 2025, The Independent of Great Britain reported that Europe’s biggest nuclear reactor has become a battlefield in Ukraine’s defense against Russian invaders. A catastrophic meltdown can result from its efforts to connect it to Moscow’s national grid.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which has six reactors, was captured by Russian troops early in the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It has remained a dangerous potential flashpoint for a nuclear disaster ever since.
Fighting and bombardments by both sides of the complex and the power station itself have forced the reactors into a “cold shutdown”. The complex has been entirely occupied by Russian forces that base troops in its buildings.
On November 20, 2025, the Kyiv Post reported that Russian strikes forced four of Ukraine’s nine nuclear reactors to power down. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Russian strikes targeting energy facilities supporting Ukraine’s nuclear plants have forced nearly half of Ukraine’s reactors to drop output.
The protective shield at the Chernobyl nuclear plant has been damaged further by a recent Russian strike. The shield can no longer block radiation, the IAEA announced on December 6, 2025.
The leaders of the world’s largest religions must remember that on April 26, 1986, the No. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. It is located near Pripyat, a city in the Ukrainian SSR, a member of the now-defunct Soviet Union. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only two nuclear energy accidents rated at the maximum severity on the International Nuclear Event Scale. (The other being the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan). The initial response to the Chernobyl incident reportedly involved more than 500,000 personnel and cost an estimated $84.5 billion (2025 USD exchange rate). It remains the worst nuclear disaster and the most expensive man-made calamity in history, with a total estimated cost of US$700 billion, and counting.
“Science journals say that the theory of nuclear winter means that massive quantities of smoke and dust are injected into the atmosphere by multiple atomic detonations. They would drive Earth’s temperatures below the freezing point of water for extended periods.”
Chernobyl’s radioactive fallout in 1986 significantly spread to Russia, along with Ukraine and Belarus, contaminating large areas and affecting millions. Russia’s Bryansk region was particularly hard hit by fallout. However, lighter contamination reached across Europe and the Northern Hemisphere. The plume carried radioactive particles, including caesium-137 and iodine-131, causing widespread contamination in parts of European Russia, with millions still living in affected areas decades later.
In essence, while Ukraine and Belarus were the most heavily impacted, Russia was a major recipient of Chernobyl’s radioactive fallout, with lasting environmental and health consequences. But that was the result of an explosion of its Reactor No. Four. What if Ukraine’s nine other operating reactors are destroyed — in addition to a protective-shielded Chernobyl nuclear plant involved in the 1986 explosion? And what if all are bombed and burned to the ground by military assaults? That will be at least 10 times the damages suffered by the above-named countries 1986 in 1986. And wind currents and even the so-called atmospheric rainfall travel from west to east. Russia lies east of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants. Radioactive contamination can exist for tens of centuries and cannot be entirely cleaned.
Science journals say that the theory of nuclear winter means that massive quantities of smoke and dust are injected into the atmosphere by multiple atomic detonations. They would drive Earth’s temperatures below the freezing point of water for extended periods. It should diminish the amount of sunlight reaching the surface, and thus create a period of prolonged cold and darkness.
On March 2, 2022, this column proposed “Making Ukraine the Switzerland of East Europe and the Near East.” It was Part III of the “Ukraine Crisis” series.
Perhaps the study groups of the Vatican and the Orthodox Churches of Russia and Ukraine can examine the column article. And then turn it into an improved and viable feasibility study for approval by the Russian and Ukrainian governments. Then the United Nations can pledge to deploy multiethnic, interfaith peacekeepers along Ukraine’s borders with Russia and Belarus. Perhaps by Christmas of 2026, the Eastern Front will be relatively peaceful and progressive.
