Russian soldiers likely exposed to Chernobyl radiation, Ukraine’s Energoatom says

Russian soldiers were likely exposed to radiation while they were occupying the area around the Chernobyl nuclear power station over the past four weeks, Ukrainian officials said on Friday.

Vehicles used by Russian forces would have raised radioactive dust clouds and soldiers also dug trenches in the most contaminated part of the site, Ukraine’s nuclear agency Energoatom said.

The power station, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, was taken back under the control of Ukrainian forces on Thursday as Russia withdrew from areas north of the capital Kyiv.

“All the equipment at the Chernobyl power station is functioning. The control and radiation monitoring systems function as usual,” power station chief Valery Seida said in a statement.