The two sources said that the escort soldiers did not use any equipment against the radioactivity. A second Chernobyl official said it was “suicidal” for the soldiers because the radioactive dust they inhaled was likely to cause internal radiation to their bodies. Ukraine’s state nuclear inspectorate said on February 25 that there had been an increase in Chernobyl levels of radioactivity as a result of heavy military vehicles shaking the ground. So far, however, no details have been released about what exactly happened. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register The two Ukrainian workers who spoke to Reuters were on duty when Russian tanks entered Chernobyl on February 24 and took control of the site, where staff are still responsible for safely storing spent fuel and monitoring waste residues. of concrete. which exploded in 1986. Both men said they saw Russian tanks and other armored vehicles moving through the Red Forest, which is the most radioactively contaminated part of the Chernobyl zone, about 100 km (65 miles) north of Kiev. The regular soldiers that one of the workers spoke to while working with them at the facility had not heard of the blast, he said. The Russian Defense Ministry, when asked to comment on the accounts of Chernobyl personnel, did not respond. The Russian military said after the plant was occupied that the radiation was normal and that its actions prevented possible “nuclear provocations” by Ukrainian nationalists. Russia has previously denied that its forces endangered nuclear facilities inside Ukraine. OUT OF BOUNDARIES The site got its name when tens of square kilometers of pine trees turned red after absorbing radiation from the 1986 explosion, one of the worst nuclear disasters in the world. A huge area around Chernobyl is out of bounds for anyone who does not work there or does not have a special permit, but the Red Forest is considered so polluted that even the workers at the nuclear plant are not allowed to go there. The Russian military convoy passed through the zone, the two officials said. One of them said he was using an abandoned road. “A large convoy of military vehicles drove along a road just behind our facilities and this road passes by the Red Forest,” said one source. “The escort fired a large column of dust. Many radiation sensors showed levels were exceeded,” he said. Valery Seida, deputy general manager of the Chernobyl plant, was not there at the time and did not see the Russian escort going to the Red Forest, but said he was told by witnesses that Russian military vehicles were moving around the blockade zone and could pass. the Red Forest. “Nobody goes there … for God’s sake. There is no one there,” Seida told Reuters. He said workers at the plant had told Russian service staff that they should be careful about the radiation, but he knew no evidence that they were paying attention. “They drove where it was needed,” Seida said. After the Russian troops arrived, the two factory workers worked for almost a month with their colleagues until they were allowed to go home last week, when Russian commanders allowed replacement staff to be sent. read more Reuters could not independently verify their accounts. They were interviewed by telephone on Friday on condition of anonymity because they feared for their safety. The next day, Russian forces captured the town of Slavutych near Chernobyl, where most of the factory workers live. read more Seida and the mayor of Slavutych said on Monday that Russian forces had now left the city. read more RADIATION RISE Reuters was unable to determine independently what the levels of radioactivity were for people in the immediate vicinity of the Russian convoy that entered the Red Forest. Ukraine’s State Exclusion Authority said on February 27 that the last file it had on a sensor near a nuclear waste storage facility before it lost control of the monitoring system showed that the absorbed radiation dose was seven times higher than normal. . The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on February 25 that radioactivity levels at the Chernobyl site had reached 9.46 microsieverts per hour, but remained “within the operating range” recorded in the exclusion zone since its inception. did not pose a threat to the general population. Safe levels, according to IAEA standards listed on the agency’s official website, are up to 1 millisievert per year for the general population and 20 millisieverts per year for radiation professionals – where 1 millisievert equals 1,000 microsieverts. On March 9, the IAEA announced that it had stopped receiving surveillance data from the Chernobyl site. He gave no answer on Monday to the employees’ allegations. The Chernobyl exclusion zone is still considered dangerous by the Ukrainian authorities. Entering the scene of an accident without permission is a crime under Ukrainian law. In the weeks since the plant’s two employees shared the complex with Russian troops, they also said they had not seen any of them use equipment to protect them from radiation. Specialists from the Russian military who have been trained in radioactivity did not arrive until just a week after the arrival of Russian troops, workers said. They said the Russian experts were not even wearing protective equipment. One of the officials said he had spoken to some of the Russian soldiers at the factory. “When asked if they knew about the 1986 catastrophe, the explosion of the fourth plot (of the Chernobyl factory), they had no idea. They had no idea what kind of facility they were in,” he said. “We talked to regular soldiers. All we heard from them was ‘It’s an extremely important infrastructure. That was it,’” the man said. POWER PREPARATION Testimonies about Russian troops at Chernobyl are combined with other evidence to suggest that the invading force sent to Ukraine was not fully prepared for what they encountered. The Kremlin says what it calls a special military operation in Ukraine is to be planned and is on schedule. However, Ukrainian officials and their Western allies say Russia’s initial push deep into Ukrainian territory has stalled after it faced logistical problems and faced tougher-than-expected Ukrainian resistance. Russia initially said only professional soldiers had been sent, but backtracked and said conscripts had been mistakenly deployed, with some of them being taken prisoner. read more Ukrainian intelligence services have said that Russian troops often use open radio frequencies or cell phones to communicate with each other, which means that Kiev forces could eavesdrop on their conversations. Video footage posted on social media in Ukraine showed numerous cases of Russian military vehicles not being damaged in battle but abandoned after being damaged or running out of fuel. Washington estimates that Russia has a failure rate of up to 60% for some of the precision-guided missiles it uses to attack Ukraine, three knowledgeable US officials told Reuters last week. read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Edited by Alison Williams Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
