Among the most complicated and feared moments of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, particularly in the early days, was the occupation of the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant, badly damaged in the wellknown 1986 disaster and administered by Ukraine ever since. At the end of March, the Russian troops finally left the site of the former power plant, which was once again under the control of the Ukrainian armed forces: these days, however, increasing evidence is emerging that the Russians used very little caution while engaging in a the most unsafe and dangerous places in the world.
As Valeriy Simyonov, head of security at the Chernobyl site, aptly summed it up, “the Russians came and did what they wanted”. “We tried to warn them that it was dangerous, but they ignored us,” Simyonov said in an interview with the New York Times.
The former Chernobyl power plant is located about 100 kilometers north of Kyiv in northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus. At the beginning of the invasion, in the weeks that followed, some Russian troops had occupied the socalled alienation zone of the plant, that is, the area located within a radius of about 30 kilometers from the plant and established after the 1986 disaster. They had their presence in the area, apparently without much regard for their own safety and the safety of the people living in the area.
According to the site’s Ukrainian staff, Russian soldiers moved through the area with bulldozers or tanks, often without wearing protective gear, and risked kicking up radioactive dust in the socalled “Red Forest,” an area around the site with very high levels of radioactivity. Some photos and satellite images also show that the Russians dug trenches and bunkers and, above all, exposed themselves to very high doses of highly dangerous radioactive substances after setting up camp in the forest around the plant.
“When I got here, I was shocked.” Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyy describes what he found at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant @fpleitgenCNNwho was one of the first to visit the notorious plant after the Russian army had withdrawn. pic.twitter.com/6dVhdFl70t
CNN (@CNN) April 8, 2022
Energatom, the Ukrainian stateowned company that manages the country’s nuclear power plants, has shared some images on its Telegram channel showing the camps and other materials abandoned by the Russians in an area very close to the Chernobyl site.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in late March that Russia’s occupation of the territory was an “irresponsible” gesture and could have very serious consequences across Europe. In a message shared on his Telegram channel, Vereshchuk wrote that the Russian military “transports tons of rockets, shells and ammunition every day” that were dumped in the nearby city of Pripyat, ignoring the fact that an accidental explosion during the Transports could damage the structures built to ensure the isolation of the facility and cause the release of radioactive substances that could have contaminated not only Ukraine but also other European countries.
During the withdrawal, Russian troops blew up a bridge inside the alienation zone and placed barbed wire, traps and antipersonnel mines in the area around the former power plant, two of which were beaten by Ukrainian soldiers.
Ukrainian soldiers on the ChernobylDytiatky bridge destroyed by the Russian army, April 5 (AP Photo / Oleksandr Ratushniak)
Simyonov also said that a Russian soldier once handled an ingot of cobalt60 an extremely dangerous material stored in a depot without gloves: within a few seconds, the Geiger counter, the instrument that measures radioactivity, had reported a lot high levels. There is no information about the soldier’s health.
To date, no cases of ailments or illnesses attributable to radiation exposure have been officially confirmed and the International Atomic Energy Agency has not been able to independently verify some of the certificates submitted in this regard. However, Energoatom said at the end of March that some Russian soldiers had shown symptoms related to ingestion of radioactive substances after being in an area near the plant with particularly high levels of radiation.
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