Operation in exclusion zone – Russian soldiers in Chernobyl “radiated”

While working at the damaged nuclear power plant, soldiers likely came into contact with irradiated material beneath the surface, the daily reported Friday. At the first sign of illness, Russian troops are said to have panicked and prepared to withdraw.

Since the beginning of the war in Chernobyl
The soldiers received such high doses of radiation “that doctors in special protective suits had to explain the consequences,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on Facebook. The Russian militia was in the region around the former nuclear power plant for five weeks.

However, there is no independent confirmation of the Ukrainian information yet. Neither the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, nor the Kremlin have confirmed these statements so far.

Control over territory returned to Ukraine
Russian troops had already started the withdrawal from Chernobyl on Thursday and drove in two columns towards the Belarusian border. Citing Ukrainian information, the IAEA said Russia had written to return control of the area to Ukraine. Chernobyl nuclear power plant personnel were informed of the withdrawal on Friday morning.

Two temporary nuclear waste storage facilities, located in the 30-kilometre exclusion zone around the decommissioned power plant, were also completed.

Ukrainian workers stay on site
Although the partially destroyed nuclear reactor has been in Russian hands since Russia invaded five weeks ago, Ukrainian workers still oversaw the safe storage of old fuel rods and the remains of the reactor that exploded in 1986, under a concrete dome, in adverse conditions.