Ukrainian authorities have failed to restore radioactivity monitoring at Chernobyl in northern Ukraine, where Russian soldiers set up an underground network when they occupied the site of the worst-ever nuclear accident.
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“The system for controlling the level of radioactivity in the exclusion zone is still out of order,” said Yevgen Kramarenko, head of the state agency responsible for the Chernobyl exclusion zone.
“The servers that manage this information are gone,” he added during a video conference followed by AFP. “We can’t say if (the area) is completely safe.”
According to him, “unless the electricity is restored and the personnel do not have permission from the armed forces to go to the radiological checkpoints, we cannot assess the damage caused to them.”
Mr. Kramarenko further confirmed that “the (Russian) passengers dug in multiple places” at Chernobyl, where the nuclear accident occurred in April 1986.
“They buried heavy equipment, they built trenches, even underground kitchens, tents and fortifications,” he said. “One of these fortifications is located near the site of a temporary repository of radioactive waste.”
The Russian military captured the nuclear power plant on the first day of Moscow’s attack on Ukraine on February 24. Withdrew from it at the end of March, according to the Ukrainian authorities.
Kramarenko warned that Russian soldiers would “very soon” feel the effects of the radiation. “Some within a month, others within years.”
According to him, about a thousand Russian soldiers were deployed in Chernobyl several weeks ago, along with 50 armored vehicles.
