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The "sarcophagus" above the damaged reactor block in Chernobyl is intended to prevent radioactive particles from entering the atmosphere
Photo: Bryan Smith / ZUMA Wire / imago images
When taking the Chernobyl reactor, Russian soldiers drove their vehicles through a particularly badly contaminated area without protective equipment, according to two Ukrainian power plant employees.
According to their own statements, the Ukrainians were on duty on February 24 when Russian troops took control of the nuclear power plant ruins.
The men, who did not want to be named, told the Reuters news agency that they drove through the so-called Red Forest in tanks and armored vehicles and kicked up clouds of radioactive dust.
One of them spoke of a "suicidal" action, as the soldiers may have inhaled the dust.
According to the information, specially trained Russian soldiers only reached the nuclear power plant a week later.
They too were not wearing any safety equipment, unlike any of the Russian military seen in the weeks that followed.
One of the two employees said he was able to speak to some enlisted soldiers who were stationed there.
"When they were asked if they knew about the 1986 disaster, the fourth reactor explosion, they had no idea," he says.
"They had no idea what type of facility they were in." The soldiers only explained that it was "critical infrastructure."
The two employees were questioned by telephone on Friday.
Reuters could not verify their information.
A statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense could not be obtained.
According to his own statements, the manager on duty at the facility, Valeri Seida, was not on site at the time of the invasion.
However, he had heard from eyewitnesses that Russian military vehicles drove around the entire exclusion zone and could also have passed through the Red Forest.
The region covers a few tens of square kilometers and got its name when the trees turned red after the reactor accident.
It is considered to be particularly contaminated, and employees of the nuclear ruins are not allowed to enter it either.
"No one goes there... for God's sake," Seida said.
"There's nobody there."
jso/Reuters