by Lorenzo Cremonesi
From the trenches dug in the contaminated ground to the raids of radioactive remains by the Russians. Visit one of the most dangerous places on Earth where Ukrainians surrendered to avoid catastrophe
from our correspondent
Chernobyl brutality, ignorance, contempt for the enemy, but also for themselves and their soldiers given the ruthless and selfdestructive way in which the Russian invading forces behaved in the radioactive region of the nuclear power plant destroyed by the 1986 disaster: them are the conclusions drawn from the latest reports from Chernobyl. Visiting the “exclusion zone around the gigantic “sarcophagus, accompanied by Ukrainian technicians, which the entire international community helped to build in order to contain the poisonous particles of the smelting reactor, inevitably leads to touching on the most tragically absurd aspects of this war in the countries of Europe .
“I know it seems unbelievable and initially we technicians working at the plant also tried to warn the Russian officers to be very careful. They didn’t have to clear the dirt off the paved roads or the marked trails. It’s written here on all notices for visitors. And most importantly, they didn’t have to touch the radioactive material unprotected. At first it seemed like they understood us and were willing to listen to us. But when they left a little over a month later, they looted and ransacked without thinking about the consequences. I’ve seen soldiers put some ionizers and other dangerous items stolen from laboratories in their uniform pockets that they should never have touched. I am sure that they are already in the hospital now and suffering from excessive doses of radiation: if they are not treated immediately, they can develop forms of cancer in a few years, says Maxim Chevchuk, 41 and two deputy directors of the entire plant, which us brought to the area yesterday.
Armored Pillars
Roslan, one of the watch officers who monitored visitors until February 23, admits that taking Chernobyl was relatively easy for Russian tank columns. “The border with Belarus is only 25 kilometers away from here. We had about 170 National Guard soldiers with only light weapons. The Russian tank columns attacked at dawn on February 24, and before noon there were over 50 tanks with directional guns in the square in front of our offices. The great fighting to stop them would take place in the days that followed just outside of Kyiv, a hundred kilometers to the south. It was then decided to surrender for two main reasons: our soldiers would have been senselessly massacred and, above all, we wanted to avoid damage to the nuclear power plant, which could have caused an even worse tragedy than that of 1986, he recalls. For Russians, the very name of Chernobyl is a disgrace, a stain to be washed: along with the Afghanistan debacle of the 1980s, it was one of the main causes of the USSR’s eventual collapse. “We didn’t think the Russians would want to occupy us so quickly,” admits Roslan. He and his men run for cover: that’s why they won’t let us visit the sensitive areas today, they entrench the areas north of the plant, the engineers blow up the mines left behind by the Russians and build fortifications.
The future
The focus of the controls has shifted to Mariupol and the Donbass for the time being. But the prevailing belief here is that in the future Putin will try again to take Chernobyl, and then focus on Kyiv again. Initially, however, the relationship with the Ukrainian technicians was one of cooperation. “I don’t mean that there was no tension. The Russians captured our soldiers and we don’t know anything about them. However, over a hundred of our technicians stayed to ensure the facility was not damaged. Russian officers appeared aware of the disaster 36 years ago and did not intervene. Their armored columns passed without stopping. They were sure that they could win in a few days, they seemed optimistic,» Maxim specifies. But things escalated as Russian casualties mounted and their columns faltered: Russian anger grew with frustration. Then the persecution of civilians began: in the eyes of Russian soldiers, every Ukrainian was a dangerous enemy. «The first alarm went off around March 5, when the fuel shortage threatened to blow the water supply for the reactor’s cooling system. The Russians didn’t do much, they didn’t even give us a drop of their petrol, say the technicians. In the meantime, however, the arrests have been triggered. The Russians dug trenches in the radioactive earth, their tanks kicking up radioactive dust. “Those who slept in the freshly dug bunkers will have short lives,” says smiling 68yearold Vasily Davrdenko, who has been working on the wildlife oasis that has grown on the enclosed area for 30 years.
cruelty of the Russians
“They shot fawns and rare birds. They had no respect for anything. They stopped young men and forced them to strip to see if they had nationalist tattoos or war wounds. Then, towards the end of March, realizing that they were going to retreat, the looting started, he comments. In a matter of hours, the Russians stole all the computers, including those monitoring radioactivity sensors, and even took the clothes and suitcases of Ukrainian technicians. The loot also contained 133 pieces of radioactive material weighing over 700 kilos. The Russian officers allow it, the soldiers become looters. “They were mostly Chechens or young recruits from the eastern provinces, many had Asian traits the technicians still remember . They didn’t seem to know the consequences. But they were violent, we left it. They were all gone less than three hours after the evacuation order.
April 12, 2022 (Change April 12, 2022 | 22:26)
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