The state enterprise that oversees Ukraine's nuclear power plants said on Thursday that Russian forces had withdrawn from Chernobyl, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster.
In a statement published on Telegram, Energotom said, "It has been confirmed that the occupiers, who seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and other facilities in the Exclusion Zone, were on two pillars towards the Ukrainian border with the Republic of Belarus." I went."
On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred at the number 4 reactor in Chernobyl, killing 30 people immediately. In the years that followed, countless others died of radiation symptoms.
In late February, during the first week of the war, the plant and its surrounding area fell into the hands of Russian troops.
On Thursday Russian troops announced their intention to relinquish and hand over control to Ukrainian personnel, Energotom said.
It also posted copies of a formal letter purportedly signed by a representative of Russia's National Guard, a representative of Russia's state nuclear power company Rosatom and a Chernobyl plant shift manager, with the title, "Acceptance and Transfer of Security". Task" Chernobyl nuclear power plant."
The letter states that "the administration of the protected facility does not make any claims in relation to the soldiers of the National Guard of the Russian Federation."
Energoatom's Telegram statement said a small number of "racists" — a Ukrainian slur for Russians that combine the words "fascist" and "racist" — remained at the station.
"It should be noted that the information about the fortifications and trenches that the racists built in the Red Forest was the most polluted in the entire exclusion zone," Energotom said.
"So it is not surprising that the occupants received significant doses of radiation and panicked at the first sign of illness. And it appeared very quickly. As a result, a riot almost broke out among the army, and they began to gather from there. engaged,” the statement continued.
CNN was not immediately able to verify those claims.
Separately, Energoatom said that there were reports that a column of Russian troops, who had besieged the Slavutic city that had been built to house workers in Chernobyl, was also making its way back to Belarus.
A senior US defense official told reporters on Thursday that the US was looking "downward" at Russian forces from Chernobyl and north and northwest of Kyiv.
The official said the US believes the Russian military has "abandoned Hostomel Airport", also known as Antonov International Airport, northwest of Kyiv.
The Russian occupation of Chernobyl has given rise to fears that security standards inside the exclusion zone may be compromised.
A week ago, Ukraine's government said the Russian military had robbed and destroyed a laboratory near an abandoned nuclear plant used to monitor radioactive waste.
During the invasion of Ukraine, Russia is targeting civilian infrastructure such as power stations, according to Mason Clark, principal Russia analyst at the Institute for War Studies.
"It's coming most clearly in Mariupol, where they're intentionally targeting water stations and power supplies and internet towers and cell phone towers and things like that, and a way to make it more difficult for the defenders. Make a very deliberate effort out and try and force them to surrender," Clarke told CNN in mid-March.