Chernobyl, Ukraine (AP) – Here, on the land of one of the most radioactive sites in the world, Russian soldiers are digging trenches. Ukrainian officials fear that, in fact, they are digging their own graves.
In the early hours of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, thousands of tanks and soldiers rushed into the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, taking heavily contaminated soil from the crash site in 1986, which was the world’s worst nuclear disaster. .
For more than a month, several Russian soldiers remained on the ground to see a massive structure built to protect radiation from a damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor. It is impossible to see their canals because walking on the ground is forbidden.
As the 36th anniversary of April 26, 1986 approaches and the Russian invasion continues, it is clear that Chernobyl – a relic of the Cold War – was never prepared for it.
Scientists and others are watching carefully from afar as Russian forces fly into a long closed factory, overlooking the limited airspace surrounding it. In a marathon shift that lasts more than a month, they have staff working in the factory, employees sleeping at tables, and eating only twice a day.
Even now, a few weeks after the Russians left, “I need to calm down,” Valery Semenov, chief security engineer at the plant, told The Associated Press. He worked 35 days non -stop, slept only three hours a night, rationed cigarettes and stayed even when the Russians switched shifts.
“I’m afraid they’ll install something and break the system,” he said in an interview.
The workers were defending the Russians from the most dangerous areas, but Semenov called it the worst situation he had seen during his 30-year stay at Chernobyl, the plant had no electricity to support critical work. in water circulation based on diesel generators to cool the water. Fuel rods.
“It is very dangerous to do so,” said Maxim Shevchuk, deputy head of the state agency that manages the exclusion zone. He was scared of it all.
Russia’s invasion is the first time that the conquest of a nuclear power plant has been part of the country’s war strategy, said Rebecca Harms, former president of the European Parliament’s Green Group, who has visited Chernobyl several times. He called it a “nightmare” scenario where “any nuclear power plant could be used as a pre-installed nuclear bomb”.
A visit to a distant place, a place more deserted than usual, found that the invasion represented a worse disaster than the first Chernobyl explosion and fire, which sent radioactive material into the atmosphere and became a symbol of last years of Soviet blockade. Billions of dollars have been spent by the international community, including Russia, for the stabilization and security of the territory.
Today the government is working with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to protect the most critical areas in Chernobyl. At the top of the list are anti-hydrone systems and anti-tank barriers, a system of protection against fighter planes and helicopters.
None of this would matter if Russian President Vladimir Putin used nuclear weapons, which Shevchuk said he could not avoid.
“I understand that they can use any kind of weapon and they can do anything terrible,” he said.
Chernobyl needs special international protection with a strong UN mandate, Harms said. As an initial catastrophe, risks are presented not only for Ukraine, but also for neighboring Belarus and beyond.
“It depends on where the wind is blowing,” he said.
After seeing thousands of Soviet soldiers trying to prevent the aftermath of the 1986 incident, sometimes unprotected, Harms and others were shocked at the abandonment of Russian soldiers on security or ignorance during the recent invasion.
Some soldiers stole very radioactive materials as souvenirs or perhaps to be sold.
“I think from the movies they get the idea that all the dangerous nonsense is very important,” Shevchuk said.
He believes the hundreds or thousands of soldiers whose health was damaged were likely to have no idea of the consequences, despite warnings by factory workers to their commanders.
“Most of the soldiers are in their 20s,” he said. “All these actions show that their governance and human life in Russia in general are zero.”
The full extent of Russia’s actions in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is still unknown, especially since the troops of the mines are still being sought by the Ukrainian military. Some exploded, further disturbing the radioactive soil. The Russians also put out some forest fires, which were extinguished.
Ukrainian authorities could not control radiation levels in the area because Russian soldiers stole the system’s main server and cut off communications on March 2. The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday that it had not yet received remote data from in its monitoring systems. The Russians even confiscated personal radiation monitors from Chernobyl employees.
In one of the communication center buildings, in a nature-protected area, the Russians robbed and left a broken glass carpet. The building is deeply rooted in the 1980s, where the Soviet Union is still depicted on the wall map. On one occasion, someone took a pink marker and traced the borders of Ukraine.
About 6,000 people work in the area during normal hours, nearly half of them at a nuclear power plant. When the Russians attacked, most of the workers were told to evacuate immediately. Today about 100 remain at the nuclear power plant and 100 elsewhere.
Semenov, a security engineer, recalled that the Russians controlled the remaining workers in what they called radicals.
“We said:‘ Look at our documents, 90% of us are from Russia, ’” he said. “But we are patriots of our country”, which means Ukraine.
When the Russians stormed the region on March 31 as part of a retreat that left tanks burned and communities injured, they brought more than 150 members of the Ukrainian National Guard to Belarus. Shevchuk fears that they are in Russia now.
The Russians quickly gave the managers of the nuclear plant a choice: sign a document that soldiers were guarding the site and there were no complaints, or bring them to Belarus. The managers have already signed.
One of the protective measures taken by the Russians was to leave the open line leading from the nuclear power plant to the working-class city of Slavutich and the Ukrainian capital Kiev to talk to the authorities. It has been used several times, Shevchuk said.
“I think they thought it must be for their safety,” he said. The IAEA said on Tuesday that the plant can now directly contact the Ukrainian nuclear regulator.
Another Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia in southeastern Ukraine remains under Russian control. It is the largest in Europe.
Shevchuk, like other Ukrainians, had problems with Putin.
“We invite him to a new safe haven,” he said. “Then we’ll close it.”
Source: Huffpost
