‘Chernobyl-Style Damage’: Russia Warns US Against Entering Iran-Israel War After Bushehr Strike

Last Updated:June 19, 2025, 18:02 IST

For the second day in a row, the Kremlin warned the Trump administration against joining the Iran-Israel conflict.

Russia cautions Washington as claims emerge of Israeli attacks on Bushehr nuclear site. (IMAGE: AFP/REUTERS)

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Thursday warned the US against joining the ongoing Iran-Israel conflict as the head of Russia’s nuclear energy corporation warned on Thursday that an Israeli attack on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant could lead to a “Chernobyl-style catastrophe".

“We would like to especially warn Washington against military intervention in the situation, which would be an extremely dangerous step with truly unpredictable negative consequences," Zakharova was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters.

She pointed out that Russia is “especially concerned about the safety of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, in whose operation Russian specialists are involved".

Iranian state-run news agencies said that Russia has called on Israel to immediately stop airstrikes on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear facility.

An Israeli military spokesperson said Israel had struck the site, but an Israeli military official later called this statement “a mistake" and said he could neither confirm nor deny that the Bushehr site on the cost of the Gulf had been hit.

Bushehr is Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant and was built by Russia.

“If there is a strike on the operational first power unit, it will be a catastrophe comparable to Chernobyl," the state RIA news agency cited Alexei Likhachev as saying.

Likhachev was referring to the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, when a reactor exploded at Chernobyl in Soviet Ukraine.

An attack on Bushehr would be “beyond… evil," Likhachev added.

Moscow/Tehran/Washington

News world ‘Chernobyl-Style Damage’: Russia Warns US Against Entering Iran-Israel War After Bushehr Strike