Russian troops took control of the Chernobyl power plant, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history decades ago, during the first day of its invasion of Ukrainian territory.
The takeover of the region in northern Ukraine took place on Thursday (24), in the first of the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory.
Fighting continued in the following days, in different parts of the country, including Kiev, the capital, the Donbass region and the south of the Crimean peninsula, taken by Russia in 2014. It is an attack along Ukraine’s borders with Russia and to Belarus.
But why did Russia decide to take control of the now decommissioned nuclear plant and the city of Chernobyl, an area abandoned since 1986 and still partially contaminated by radiation, so early in the war?
After the disaster, an Exclusion Zone was created, 30 kilometers around the Chernobyl power plant. This includes the cities of Pripyat, near the nuclear plant, and Chernobyl, about 15 kilometers away, which have become ghost towns.
The Russian invasion of Chernobyl
The Chernobyl plant is located about 15 kilometers from the border between Ukraine and Belarus, where one of the many advances on Ukraine by Russian troops comes from. It is also about 100 kilometers north of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.
Russian soldiers arrived at the factory on the first day of the invasion, he told CNN a spokesperson for the Ukrainian State Agency for the Management of Exclusion Zones, Yevgeniya Kuznetsov.
Alyona Shevtsova, adviser to the commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, said on Facebook that Russian forces had taken control of the plant and that employees had been taken “hostage”.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, explained that control of the Chernobyl zone was lost after a “fierce battle”. He added that the status of the nuclear waste storage facilities at the former Chernobyl power plant is unknown.
On the other hand, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told Russian state agency Tass that the paratroopers who seized the plant “have reached an agreement with Ukrainian personnel to protect the nuclear reactor and the sarcophagus that protects it. ”.
Ukraine’s nuclear agency and the Interior Ministry said on Friday that they were recording rising levels of radiation at the site after it was seized by Russia, Reuters reported.
The Kremlin denied these claims, saying the levels were normal.
Why did Russia decide to capture Chernobyl?
The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is in the middle of the most direct route to the Belarus border, where one of Russia’s main attacks on Kiev was launched.
This geographic location had already prompted the Ukrainian government to send troops to the site in early February, expecting an attack.
A Russian security source quoted by Reuters said Russian soldiers had concentrated in the Exclusion Zone, which covers part of Belarusian territory, before crossing into Ukraine on Thursday at the start of the invasion.
That source said Russia is trying to control the Chernobyl plant to signal the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) — the US-led defensive alliance at the center of the conflict over Ukraine’s attempts to join the group — not to interfere. militarily in the conflict.
Konashenkov said the capture of the Chernobyl plant was “a guarantee that nationalist groups and other terrorist organizations will not be able to use the country’s current situation to carry out a nuclear provocation”, echoing Putin’s baseless accusations. against the Ukrainian government.
What Happened at Chernobyl in 1986
An explosion destroyed reactor No. 4 at the then Soviet-controlled Vladimir Lenin factory in Chernobyl on April 26, 1986, during a failed safety test.
Clouds of radioactive material spread across Europe in what became the worst nuclear disaster in history.
More than 30 people died immediately after the blast, and in the years that followed, many more died from symptoms of radiation, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Ukrainian government has evacuated around 135,000 people from the area and created the 30-kilometer exclusion zone around the plant so it will remain uninhabitable for decades.
Still, some people are still living in Chernobyl and maintenance crews have continued to work on the reactor.
In the months after the accident, a sarcophagus was built to cover Reactor #4 and contain the radioactive material. However, it has since deteriorated, leading to radiation leaks.
In 2016, a structure known as the New Safe Confinement was placed over the sarcophagus. The massive arch-shaped design aims to prevent the release of contaminated material as well as protect the sarcophagus from external impacts such as tornadoes or extreme electrical storms.
See images of the Russian attack on Ukraine
Source: CNN Brasil
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