Russia’s “irresponsible” acts around the Chernobyl power station can possibly release radiation across Europe, Ukrainian officials warned on Sunday. Russian forces captured the area earlier this month.

Iryna Vereshchuk, the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, accused Russia of “militarising” the Chernobyl exclusion zone, which was cleared of civilians in 1986 after one of the world nuclear accidents ever seen. Vereshchuk also appealed to the United Nations to send a team and take account of the situation.

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In a social media post on Sunday, Vereshchuk wrote, “In the context of nuclear safety, the irresponsible and unprofessional actions of Russian servicemen present a very serious threat not only to Ukraine but to hundreds of millions of Europeans”, according to reports from Reuters.

The Deputy Prime Minister added, “We therefore demand that the UN Security Council adopt immediate measures to demilitarise the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl station as well as dispatching a special mission to eliminate the risks of any repeat of the Chernobyl accident resulting from the actions of Russian occupying forces.”

The Russian forces were carrying old and unmaintained weapons near the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, significantly boosting the risk of damaging the containment structure that was built after the nuclear disaster.

Russian military forces looted and destroyed a new laboratory at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that was used to monitor radioactive waste, the Ukrainian government alleged earlier this week.

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Ukraine’s energy minister, however, clarified that no leaks of radioactive material have been detected since Russian tanks fired at nuclear power plants in Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia but that nightmares about a nuclear disaster keep him awake at night.

“I haven’t slept for an entire night with the nightmare of nuclear disaster”, the minister said in a statement, according to reports from Associated Press.