The headquarters of the Russian military and about a thousand invaders were at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant

OLENA ROSHCHINA - SUNDAY, 3 APRIL 2022, 13:32

Before the Russian troops withdrew, there were about a thousand Russian soldiers on the territory of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, and up to 500 soldiers in the city of Chornobyl.

Source: Yevhen Kramarenko, the Head of the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management, at a briefing at Ukraine Media Centre, Ukrinform

Quote from Kramarenko: Their main headquarters was on the territory of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. There were about 50 units of equipment and about a thousand soldiers guarding the Chornobyl nuclear power plant."

Details: The Russian invaders set up a commandant's office in Chornobyl, with up to 500 people.

"We don't know how many people sat in the trenches that we keep discovering in the forests," Kramarenko added.

According to the official, about 10,000 units of Russian equipment passed through Chornobyl as they left the occupied part of the Kyiv Region. All this equipment may have been exposed to radiation contamination, and Russian soldiers could have received radiation.

Background: 

• Russian troops occupied the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and other facilities within the Exclusion Zone on 24 February, the first day of the full-scale invasion, and withdrew their soldiers to the Ukrainian border with Belarus on 31 March. 
• On 31 March, Energoatom, the National Nuclear Energy Generating Company of Ukraine, announced that there were no foreigners at the Chornobyl site.
• When Russians were at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, they actually held the station staff hostage. Only on 20 March did it became possible to carry out a partial rotation of Chornobyl personnel and to evacuate those who were there. During the withdrawal, the Russian military took the Ukrainian National Guards with them.
• The Russians looted the Central Analytical Laboratory in Chornobyl, for an amount worth about 6 million euros, and stole the property of enterprises in the Exclusion Zone.
• On 2 April, the Ukrainian flag was raised at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and the national anthem was sung.