Following the siege of the facility in the early days of the war, about 170 Ukrainian national guardsmen who secured the facility were held prisoner in the basement. Over the next two days, teams from Russia’s atomic energy agency Rosatom were brought in. Oleksandr Lobada, the radiation safety supervisor at the station, said they wanted to know how the facility was managed, constantly asking questions and sometimes challenging.
THEY STEAL FROM THE RUSSIAN
Regardless, Chernobyl’s staff were willing to keep the plant’s maintenance under control. Engineer Valeriy Semonov said that thanks to the engineers’ efforts and mild demeanor, the supervisors and other technical personnel were allowed to continue working. When electricity to the station was cut off for three days, Valeriy said she struggled to find fuel to keep the generator running, even resorting to stealing it from the Russians.
THEY KNOW LITTLE THINGS
It was seen in the drone footage released by the Ukrainian army that Russian soldiers stayed in the area behind the plant called “Red Forest” during the siege. It has also been confirmed by station officials that this area is one of the most radioactive places in the world. This is proof of how little Russian soldiers know about nuclear safety. Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-run nuclear energy agency, said Russian soldiers were exposed to “significant doses” of radiation.
Officials in Chernobyl said Russian soldiers looted whatever they could as they left the dormitories in the basement of the main building, and took captive members of the national guard with them.
Engineer Semonov “We managed to keep the site safe. But it is a pity that they took 169 of our army.” said. The whereabouts of the guards has not been confirmed, but Chernobyl’s personnel believe they are in Russia.
BRIDGE BLASTED
Ukraine’s former president, Petro Poroshenko, visited Chernobyl on Friday, providing food and other supplies for the plant’s staff. Access to the Po was only opened from an off-road track. The bridge to Chernobyl was blown up to stop the Russian advance.