European Bank for Reconstruction and Development/Handout via Reuters
Three weeks after Russian troops retreated from the Chernobyl nuclear zone, authorities there say they are largely in the dark about the scale of damage left behind because the main server for monitoring radiation levels was stolen. In an interview with the AP published Wednesday, Maksym Shevchuck, the deputy head of the state agency managing the exclusion zone, said hundreds or even thousands of Russian soldiers are likely walking around with no idea how badly they’ve doomed themselves by touching dangerous items in the plant. “Most of the soldiers were around 20 years old. All these actions proves that their management, and in Russia in general, human life equals like zero,” he said. The radioactive soil in the exclusion zone was reportedly stirred up by forest fires the Russian troops deliberately set, as well as the mines they planted, some of which have exploded. Worse yet, the main server that would allow nuclear officials to check radiation levels has been severed since March 2, and the International Atomic Energy Agency said as recently as last Saturday that it was not receiving remote data. Rebecca Harms, who visited the exclusion zone many times as a member of the European Parliament, told the AP that the Russian forces’ takeover of Chernobyl was a “nightmare,” as it showed that “every nuclear plant can be used like a pre-installed nuclear bomb.”
