“Invaders Declare Intent”
Russian troops leave Chernobyl
03/31/2022, 7:51 p.m
More than a month ago, Russian units took over the Chernobyl nuclear ruins during their attack on Ukraine. A few days after the announcement of a withdrawal from the region around the capital Kyiv, most units want to leave again.
Five weeks after taking the Chernobyl nuclear ruins, Russian troops have begun withdrawing from the restricted area in northern Ukraine. “This morning the invaders declared their intention to leave the Chernobyl nuclear power plant,” Ukrainian nuclear power company Energoatom told Telegram. The Russian soldiers would now “march in two columns towards the Ukrainian-Belarusian border”.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities reported a “major regrouping” of Russian troops near Kyiv. Large columns are on their way to Russia, said the head of the Kiev military administration, Alexander Pavlyyk, according to the Unian agency. Each column consists of more than a hundred vehicles. Only now is it becoming clear how large the deployment of troops towards Kyiv was.
The nuclear energy company Energoatom also announced that a “small number” of Russian soldiers are still in the nuclear complex. In addition, there is “evidence that a column of Russian soldiers who are besieging the city of Slavutysh is currently being formed and is to move to Belarus”. Slavutysh is near Chernobyl. The town near the Belarusian border houses the technicians who work at the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
The day before, the US Department of Defense had spoken of a withdrawal of Russian forces from the zone around the nuclear ruins. Russian forces took control of the Chernobyl nuclear ruins on February 24, the first day of their attack on Ukraine. The Russian offensive quickly stalled in the face of fierce resistance from the Ukrainian army. Since the beginning of the war, the Russian army has suffered heavy casualties.
In 1986, the worst nuclear accident in history took place in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Hundreds of people died and the radioactivity spread across large parts of Europe. The power plant has since been shut down, and a huge protective shell is designed to prevent the escape of radioactivity. Since the Russian invasion, the power supply to the nuclear ruins has been interrupted several times.