Ukrainians have claimed that Russian soldiers fled the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after receiving high levels of radiation. The claims, made by the Ukrainian national power corporation Energoatom, are now being investigated by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog.
According to Guardian documents, Energotom said the Russians had dug trenches in a wooded area inside the power plant’s exclusion quarter, adding that the soldiers “panicked at the first signs of illness that appeared very quickly and began preparing to leave.”
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk also said Russians had been exposed to radiation.
Some reports also say that after Russian soldiers “drove tanks through the “dead zone” around the nuclear plant, radioactive dust was kicked up and sent to a special treatment center in Belarus.”
Energoatom also said Russian forces had again withdrawn from the nearby town of Slavutych, where Chornobyl workers live.
The IAEA said it was preparing to send its first “aid and assistance mission” to Chernobyl in northern Ukraine in the next few days.
Although Russian troops moved quickly after the February 24 attack on Chernobyl, Ukrainian workers at the plant persisted in overseeing the safe storage of spent nuclear fuel and the concrete-encased remains of the reactor that exploded in 1986, causing the world’s worst nuclear accident.
“According to Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant staff, there are no extras on site now,” Energoatom said in an online post. State-owned Energoatom said earlier that most of the troops had left, leaving only a small contingent behind.
In a separate post, Energoatom said the Russian side had formally agreed to hand over responsibility for protecting Chernobyl to Ukraine. It shared a scan of a report signed by a man it identified as a senior staff member at Chernobyl, the respected Russian military tasked with guarding Chernobyl.