“It all depends on the direction of the wind,” they say. Luckily for the terrorist state of Russia, the wind was “on their side.” On that hot summer day, the wind blew from the north and east, which perversely punished the Russian-speaking part of Ukraine, including Odesa and Crimea.
Despite Crimea being occupied by Russia, no residents of the peninsula were warned about the radiation cloud heading their way. Just like in the Odesa region and Moldova, thousands of people were directly exposed to the contaminated air. While very few people died instantly, the majority developed oncological diseases and suffered from painful tumour growth for many harrowing years.
Later, radioactive rains came. Concentrated showers fell across southern Poland, eastern Hungary, and western Ukraine. Initially, no one noticed anything. Only a few months later, pregnant women in these regions started receiving concerning updates about foetuses abnormalities. Most of them were able to abort the pregnancy, except in predominantly Catholic Poland, where it was almost impossible, due to the local anti-abortion policies. A few dozen Polish women gave birth to children with multiple limbs and severe disabilities.
The devastation brought upon Eastern Europe was as horrific as it was historically common for the region. Thousands of people, who were already living in fear and had experienced bombings and the horrors of war, were now slowly being consumed by internal decay. The situation was so desperate that many of them signed waivers for experimental oncology treatments with big pharma companies.
Book writers and streaming service producers seized the opportunity of a lifetime. Bestselling books were written to cover the horrors of the survivors’ lives. Chernobyl-style blockbuster movies and horror TV shows were shown in cinemas and on Netflix. The entertainment industry capitalized on the suffering of dying people, parading the deformed survivors as a peculiar type of celebrities and boasting about directing a percentage of revenues to Ukrainian charities.
“The Biggest Terrorist Act in History” also had profound political implications. The outrage among Debrecen and other Eastern Hungarian regions led to waves of anti-government protests. Further investigations into Orban’s finances uncovered a series of monetary injections from Russia. As a result of mass unrest and incriminating treason, Orban was forced to resign, and a new Fidesz leader took over.
The impact on Moldova and Transnistria led to a series of uprisings, including among Russian soldiers stationed in Transnistria. A Transnistria-stationed Russian general, who returned from command only to find his wife and children coughing up blood clots, initiated a series of events that changed the course of history forever. With connections within the Russian military, he was able to identify several like-minded individuals who also knew the locations of Russian nuclear warheads. Andrey Rostov aligned with Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Ukrainian Intelligence Ministry, and the partisans operating within Russia, predominantly of Ukrainian and Kazakh descent. Together, they mapped out every single nuclear warhead across the Russian Federation. The disgust and alienation towards Russia were so strong among these people that they called the denuclearisation movement “Project Unrussia.”
The governments of the world and numerous international organizations did nothing. America, France, Germany, the United Nations, and the Red Cross voiced serious concerns about the inappropriateness of nuclear terrorism. New commissions were created to oversee the contaminated areas of Ukraine and investigate the fallout in other European states. In a somewhat ridiculous gesture of goodwill, Ukraine was promised membership in the EU and NATO once again. Several yearly publications named Ukrainian people as the personalities of the year, perhaps in an attempt to pacify them for their perceived spinelessness and years of appeasement.
The Ukrainian counteroffensive, however, gained momentum. Equipped with the newest radiation-protective armor, Ukrainian soldiers reclaimed miles of previously Russian-held territories, facing only the routine demining of fields as obstacles. Despite no clear signal from their governments, thousands of international volunteers enlisted in the Ukrainian Army after the Mid-Summer Event, as the nuclear explosion was often referred to in the media. Thousands of Romanians, Poles, and Hungarians joined the ranks of the Ukrainian army to avenge their relatives and friends killed by radiation.
Attitudes among Russian soldiers fighting for Donbas and Crimea were so controversial that books could be written about the psychology of the defeated. Many committed suicide shortly after the nuclear station explosion. Videos were later revealed where these soldiers compared themselves to Nazis, slaughtering innocent people for money and entertainment. Most soldiers were fleeing the occupied regions, fearing capture or death. A few thousand managed to contact the Ukrainian “I Want To Live” service line to surrender.
Yet, there was a part of the Russian army that continued to fight ferociously, even resisting the advancement of Western weapons for several months. This last category of soldiers knew they were fighting for the nation that no longer existed, but they remained dedicated to the cause of their grandfathers. They realized they would be remembered as criminals but felt obliged to postpone the disintegration of their once great Motherland. These are only the writer’s suppositions, as only several accounts were presented by the captured soldiers. Very few from this last category surrendered, even when their groups were encircled by the Ukrainian army. In desperate attempts to inflict more harm on the opposite side, some soldiers detonated explosives on themselves and tried to run into groups of Ukrainian fighters, while others within the group killed all their fellow servicemen before shooting themselves. By October, all Ukrainian territory had been recaptured.
Seeing his weak position at home after several mutiny attempts and the failed “3-day war,” the Russian President finally started realizing his days were numbered. Taking full advantage of the nuclear card and the Western desire for self-preservation, Putin activated several negotiation routes for his physical survival. By using nuclear blackmail, Putin kept the West in check and agreed to exile in one of Russia’s friendly African states. The agreement was mediated by President Lukashenko and Turkish President Erdogan and involved a significant portion of Putin’s wealth, handing over control of the Wagner group, and the requirement to change his appearance. Soon after striking the deal, Putin’s double was assassinated, all nuclear warheads were destroyed by the “Unrussian” partisans, and Russia began the disintegration process.
No one ever discovered this deal, and no one has seen Putin since. Hundreds of journalists, who believed in the theory of Putin’s doubles, were deployed to Africa to search for someone resembling Putin, but nothing of value was found. A new Mossad-style unit was created in the Ukrainian army, deploying agents to find and assassinate the former President of Russia. For many years, no one succeeded in locating him.
Several pictures eventually emerged from local residents in 2026, showing a frail old man of similar stature but with completely different facial features, leaving a mansion on the outskirts of Cape Town. As the South Ukrainian fields had become unsuitable for wheat production and Russia descended into a series of civil wars, global agricultural production fell by approximately 25%. Millions of Ethiopians, Yemenis, and Sudanese starved to death as the former Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin, arranged his new living conditions on their continent.
The United Nations later estimated that 22,146 people died directly from radioactivity, and 38 million people died across Africa and Eastern Europe as a consequence of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant terrorist act.
Ukraine was later accepted into the European Union and NATO and invited to replace Russia in all international organizations. However, the Ukrainian people never fully recovered from the horrors of the war and viewed the world community’s response as treason. Most of the Ukrainian economy shifted toward military production, compulsory military service was implemented for all citizens, and multiple secret agreements were signed between the Ukrainian state and various research organizations, such as DARPA or the Chinese CRISPR Association. Ukraine began adhering to the principles of information asymmetry, consuming internationally available intelligence while providing misleading information in return. Several secret intelligence and revenge groups were formed, one of which was responsible for re-creating the nuclear arsenal.
In the aftermath of the events, Eastern European states turned inward, feeling disillusioned with European values. Mistrust among these nations grew due to increased havoc in culturally diverse Western European states and the perceived lack of adequate response to radioactive pollution and widespread cancer deaths. Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Ukraine formed a supranational alliance called “SLAVA.” This alliance exchanged information and innovations, developed its own immigration policies, and conducted a series of deportations of Russian nationals, leading to serious tensions with the rest of Europe and the Western world.
Antagonising Eastern European states for what was perceived as violations of various international treaties and human rights, was not in the interest of the West, however, as the world was preparing for a new big war.
