There are uncountable troubling things about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but somewhere near the top of the list is the fate of Chernobyl. The nuclear power plant blew its top in 1986, contaminating the entire region with dangerous radiation levels. Russia took the facility on the first day of the invasion, and as many feared, there are now reports that a large number of Russian troops have been taken to medical facilities with radiation poisoning.
The initial thrust of Russian forces from Belarus targeted Chernobyl, which analysts believed would become a staging area for the eventual attack on Kyiv 58 miles (94 kilometers) to the south. Reports of intense fighting and heavy traffic from bulky military vehicles alarmed the Ukrainian government, which was cut off from monitoring systems that ensure the site’s safety.
When Chernobyl was captured, there were concerns that Russian troops didn’t understand the risks associated with the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Even decades later, many areas have radiation levels a thousand times higher than normal background. Some historians cite the Chernobyl disaster as one of the precipitating events that led to the fall of the Soviet Union. Russian media largely avoids discussing Chernobyl today.
While the facility itself has been thoroughly scrubbed and encased in a large radiation-hardened sheath, many areas of the surrounding land are still thick with radioactive dust. Unfortunately, those are also the places where Russian troops were ordered to dig defensive trenches.
The NSC encasing Chernobyl’s failed nuclear reactor.
Russian forces have pulled out of Chernobyl in recent days, which Putin’s government claims is part of a promise to scale back attacks around Kyiv during peace talks. However, reports on the ground suggest it may have more to do with the effects of radiation. One of the places Russia stationed soldiers in trenches is known as the Red Forest (see top), which gets its name from the stands of dead trees that were killed and dyed red by radioactive fallout in 1986. Even staff working in the Exclusion Zone are not permitted to enter the Red Forest, let alone to start digging holes there.
Local reports allege that Russia shipped seven buses full of irradiated troops from Chernobyl to dedicated facilities in Belarus. There are also hints that Russia has sent several “ghost buses” of dead soldiers back to Russia under cover of darkness. With the Russian withdrawal, Ukraine has been able to reassert control over Chernobyl, but the scale of damage is still unclear, and we may never know how many people were sickened or killed by radiation.
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