In Ukraine, fighting around a nuclear power plant brings back memories of Chernobyl

Anastasia Rudenko shakes the gold medal her husband Victor got for working”liquidatorafter the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. She died in 2014 from bladder cancer, caused, according to her, by radiation exposure.

In his Vichchetarasovka villagea few kilometers from the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, Rudenko She is keen to acknowledge the role of radiation in her husband’s death.

On the other side of the river, only 14 kilometers away, it is impossible not to see the imposing silhouette of the plant.

Since August 5, Ukraine and Russia have been accusing each other of shelling the sector. The attacks once hit the area of ​​the storage building for radioactive materials and again caused an automatic shutdown of reactor No. 3 of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.

Ukraine says that Russia attacks and keeps weapons and soldiers near the plant, taking advantage of the inability of the Ukrainian army to respond.

“We could be as lucky as the residents Chernobyl”, – says 63-year-old Rudenko. “What is happening is not good, and we do not know how it will end.”

In the zone”

Ukraine is still very marked by a nuclear disaster Chernobylnorth of Ukrainehappened in April 1986. A reactor exploded, causing the worst civilian nuclear accident in history, sending a cloud that spread throughout Europe.

In four years, 600,000 “liquidators” were sent to the site with little or no guards to put out fires in the areas adjacent to the plant.

The human balance of the disaster continues to be controversial.

UN He acknowledges only about 30 deaths among operators and firefighters due to acute exposure following the explosion, when the non-governmental organization Greenpeace estimated the death toll in 2006 at 100,000.

Viktor Rudenko drove a truck around the “zone” for 18 days. He was given an award Soviet Unionwhere the atoms revolve around the “dome Chernobyl”, a place symbol.

Document in poor condition from the archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. Protectioncertifies work Victor and the radiation dose received by him: 24.80 roentgens.

“When I see my husband’s documents, it hurts,” she explains. Anastasia Rudenko: “Many people died or were left with the consequences forever.”

Referring to the explosions at the plant, which are visible from his house, he states that “People say there are leaks, but they don’t want to admit it publicly.”

“Living liquidators”.

At the start of the invasion UkraineRussian troops captured the central Chernobylbut the sites were abandoned after a few weeks, when the failure to take Kyiv led to Russia withdraw your soldiers.

The Zaporozhye plant was also occupied from the first days of the war, after short fights that inspired fear.

It has been in Russian hands ever since: the Dnieper River marks the border between Russian-occupied territories and Ukrainian-held territories.

Vasil Davydov claims that the three “liquidators” still live in Vichchetarasovka, a pastoral place with small houses with a beautiful view of the river, abundant in this place, and in the distance above the cooling towers of the plant.

He is one of them: he spent three and a half months working on the decontamination Chernobyl and made 102 trips through the “zone” and, using a dosimeter, measured the level of radiation during the demolition of contaminated houses.

In his garden, in a freezer turned into a makeshift table, a 65-year-old man displays medals. One is a mythological figure of Atlas, carrying the world, and the image of the globe is replaced by a central one. Chernobyl.

There are also photographs. Vasily Davydov in military uniform, posing with his comrades in front of a panel with the inscription “Soldier! Chernobyl”.

“I was there. I saw everything, and especially the scale of the damage, he said. Davidov.

It takes a lot to scare him. A few days after the plant was taken over by Russian troops in March, iodine tablets were distributed in the cities in case of emergency, but the time spent in the “zone” seems to have accustomed him to the threat.

AFP