The russian occupiers entered the Chornobyl NPP zone without radiological protection and are staying in a highly toxic area called the Red Forest, raising clouds of radioactive dust there.
This was reported by Reuters, citing power plant employees.
Two sources told the agency that no radioprotective agents had been used in the Russian military column. Another station employee added that it was a "suicide" for the russians because the radioactive dust they inhaled could cause internal radiation.
Two Chornobyl NPP employees, who were on duty when russian tanks entered Chornobyl on 24 February 2022, said the occupiers had taken over a specific part of NPP. This site is the place to monitor the safe storage of spent nuclear fuel and observation of the reactor that exploded in 1986.
They also said they saw russian tanks and other armored military vehicles were moving through the Red Forest, the most radioactively contaminated part of the area around Chornobyl, about 100km north of Kyiv.
It should be noted that the area around Chornobyl is closed to everyone, except for Chornobyl NPP employees and those who have a special permit. The Red Forest is considered so polluted that even the employees of the nuclear power plant are not allowed there.
An employee of the station also told Reuters that he spoke to some russian soldiers of the lowest rank.
"When we asked them if they knew about the 1986 catastrophe, about the explosion of the fourth power unit, they had no idea. The soldiers had no idea where they were," - he said.
The enemy took over Chornobyl. Ten thousand hectares of forest are burning in the exclusion zone, which means a radiation threat to Ukraine, Belarus, and European countries.
Russian troops continue to militarize the exclusion zone.
Photo: Max Trebukhov