Ukrainian officials have reported that hundreds of Russian soldiers were forced to pull out from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine after suffering "acute radiation sickness" from contaminated soil.
Allegedly being treated now in a special medical facility in Gomel, Belarus are Russian troops, who dug trenches in the contaminated Red Forest close to the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history. It is called the Red Forest after thousands of pine trees turned red during the 1986 nuclear disaster. The region is deemed so highly toxic that not even highly skilled Chernobyl workers are permitted to enter the zone.
Energoatom, the Ukrainian agency in charge of the country’s nuclear power stations, stated that the Russian soldiers had panicked and fled.
"It has been confirmed that the occupiers who seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and other facilities in the Exclusion Zone set off in two columns toward Ukraine’s border with Belarus. The occupiers announced their intentions to leave the Chernobyl nuclear power plant this morning to the Ukrainian personnel of the station," the agency said in a statement on Telegram, adding that a small group of Russians still stayed at the facility.
Reports of Russian troops digging trenches in the Red Forest, "the most polluted in the entire Exclusion Zone," was confirmed by the agency. "Not surprisingly, the occupiers received significant doses of radiation and panicked at the first sign of illness. And it showed up very quickly," the agency added in its statement.
Russia says Chernobyl withdrawal part of promise to diminish invasion
Russian troops began departing from the defunct site on Wednesday, March 30, according to a United States intelligence report. Russia declared that the withdrawal from Chernobyl was part of a promise to diminish the invasion. However, Ukrainian media said it is really because the troops were "irradiated" from the contaminated soil.
"Another batch of Russian irradiated terrorists who seized the Chernobyl zone was brought to the Belarusian Radiation Medicine Center in Gomel today. There are rules for dealing with this territory," Yaroslav Yemelianenko, who works for the Public Council at the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management, said in a post on Facebook.
The Chernobyl facility was seized by Russian troops on February 24, the first day of the invasion. Workers were on duty for more than 600 hours before being allowed a shift change. International concern grew immediately when Russian troops moved heavy military hardware through the region, kicking up radioactive dust without any protective equipment. Forest fires in the region also raised concerns about environmental contamination.
Digging trenches in the forest, which is considered the most contaminated area of the site, drew widespread scorn from Ukrainians who work at the site.
According to workers at the site, Russian soldiers drove their tanks and armored vehicles without radiation protection through the seriously radioactive area and kicked up clouds of radioactive dust.
A Chernobyl employee labeled their actions as "suicidal" because the radioactive dust they inhaled would probably cause internal radiation.
Earlier this past week, it was reported that radioactive material was stolen from the site of the broken nuclear power station. (Related: DIRTY TACTICS: Ukraine claims without evidence that materials for DIRTY BOMB were stolen from lab near Chernobyl.)
Military experts said in the wrong hands, there is a low risk the materials could be utilized to make a "dirty bomb," a device that blends radioactive material with a conventional explosive.
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Watch the video below to see Russian and Ukrainian soldiers guarding the Chernobyl nuclear plant.
This video is from the Themoreuknow channel on Brighteon.com.
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