Ukrainian authorities have failed to restore mechanisms for monitoring radiation at Chernobyl in northern Ukraine, where they say they created an underground network when Russian troops occupied the site of the worst nuclear accident.
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“The system for controlling the level of radiation in the restricted zone is not yet working,” said Yevgen Gramerenko, head of the state agency in charge of the restricted zone in Chernobyl.
“The servers that manage this information have disappeared,” he added, following a video conference with AFP. “We can not say whether (the area) is completely safe.”
According to him, “until the electricity is restored and the personnel do not have the approval of the Armed Forces to go to the radiological checkpoints, we will not be able to estimate the damage.”
“The (Russian) occupiers have dug in many places,” he said in Chernobyl, where the April 1986 nuclear accident occurred. Gramerenko further promised.
“They buried heavy equipment, built trenches and underground kitchens, tents, forts,” he said. “One of these forts is located near the site of a temporary storage of radioactive waste.”
On the first day of Moscow’s offensive against Ukraine on February 24, the Russian military seized the plant. According to Ukrainian officials, he withdrew at the end of March.
Russian soldiers will realize the effects of radiation “very soon”, Mr. Gramerenko warned. “Some within a month, others in years.”
According to him, about a thousand Russian soldiers were stationed in Chernobyl for several weeks with 50 armored vehicles.
