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The decommissioned nuclear power plant in Chernobyl
Photo: Russian Defense Ministry / ITAR-TASS / IMAGO
According to the Ukrainian nuclear company Energoatom, Russian troops have begun withdrawing from the occupied Chernobyl and Slavutych nuclear reactors.
Russian soldiers drove in two columns towards the border to Belarus, the group announced on Telegram on Thursday.
The staff of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was informed in the morning about the planned withdrawal.
The information could not initially be independently verified.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk had previously demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from the area of the decommissioned nuclear power plant.
According to Ukrainian armed forces, there is a risk of ammunition exploding.
"Small number" of Russians to remain in Chernobyl
"We demand that the UN Security Council take immediate action to demilitarize the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and send a special UN mission there to eliminate the risk of a repeat nuclear catastrophe," she said.
"A small number" of Russians remain in Chernobyl, it said.
Another Russian column is withdrawing from Slavutych.
Since Russia's invasion five weeks ago, the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which was damaged in 1986, and the nuclear power plant in Enerhodar in the Zaporizhia region have been in Russian hands.
It is not possible to independently verify whether there is actually ammunition on the site of the damaged nuclear power plant and, if so, what the quantities are.
Radioactive waste is still stored in Chernobyl today.
Among other things, there are still around 20,000 fuel elements that have to be cooled.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities reported a "major regrouping" of Russian troops near Kyiv.
Large columns are on their way to Russia, said the head of the Kiev military administration, Alexander Pavlyyk, according to the Unian agency.
Each column consists of more than a hundred vehicles.
Only now is it becoming clear how large the deployment of troops towards Kyiv was.
muk/dpa