Russian soldiers that ransacked the Chernobyl nuclear site after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine took “souvenirs” with them from laboratories that were highly radioactive and deadly, Ukraine’s state nuclear company said Saturday. “These ‘heroes’ take the Darwin award from those doomed Russians who breathed in dust in the Red Forest,” Energoatom said in a statement on Telegram. In addition to looting computers and equipment, the Russian troops “unauthorizedly entered a repository of ionizing radiation sources” and “stole and damaged 133 sources with a total activity of about 7 million becquerels,” the nuclear company said, noting that “this is comparable to 700 kg of radioactive waste with the presence of beta and gamma radiation.” Citing the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, the company said it was believed the Russian soldiers took the “deadly” items “as souvenirs.” But if they were hoping to bring these souvenirs back home to impress their friends, they’re in for a surprise, as “carrying such a souvenir with you for two weeks will inevitably lead to radiation burns, radiation sickness and irreversible processes in the body,” according to Energoatom.
