A number of Russian soldiers who dug trenches in the exclusion zone surrounding the Chernobyl power plant in the abandoned Ukrainian city of Pripyat have reported radiation sickness, Russian authorities have confirmed.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of last year, Russian troops crossed from Belarus and dug trenches in the Red Forest, setting up camp just six miles from the plant’s No. 4 reactor, which exploded and melted back in 1986, causing long-term and widespread radiation.
Well within the 30-mile exclusion zone, troops dug up the radioactive soil and even hunted contaminated animals in the woods and fished in the reactor’s cooling chamber.
The Russians are understood to have spent around five weeks at the location before Ukrainian counteroffensives caused the occupiers to withdraw on April 1.
However, a number of those deployed to the area are now understood to have suffered radiation poisoning, and local Ukrainians have shown little sympathy.
“I think they understood the risks, but they’re just thick,” said 70-year-old Chernobyl local Galyna Voloshnya, as cited by the Sunday Times newspaper.
“Don’t try to find logic, it’s stupid,” added 30-year-old Oksana Pyshna, a former tour guide who is now an employee of the state ministry responsible for the exclusion zone.
“It’s the most dangerous territory in the special zone because under the ground we have nuclear waste,” she added in reference to the Red Forest, which was given its name due to the color the trees turned as a result of the contaminated soil.
“I started yelling at them,” explained 90-year-old Baba Hana, a Chernobyl resident who has remained in the area despite the substantial risks.
“I tried to give them political information, explaining what was happening in their country… I am a Russian speaker, I asked what they were doing there, who they thought they were liberating,” she told the U.K. newspaper.
Radiation sickness can be severe with symptoms including nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, fever, hair loss and internal bleeding. The symptoms can last for several months and often result in death.
