Ukrainian expert: Hundreds of Russian troops received lethal dose of radiation in Chernobyl
Ukraine’s Vice Minister for Protection of the Environment and Natural Resources, Ruslan Strelets, said hundreds of Russian troops were subjected to high levels of radiation after withdrawing from Ukraine’s Chernobyl exclusion zone.
During a TV news marathon, Strelets said his agency has uncovered hundreds of bunkers and dugouts in the exclusion zone, including in the infamous Red Forest, which is among the most contaminated area around Chernobyl and gets its name from the pine trees in the forest which turned red due to high levels of radiation.
“Our specialists say that if one spends 48 hours in the Red Forest he will receive a radiation dose similar to a radiation one receives over the course of year. That is, factually anyone who was stationed there– they are the walking dead, they are people who have no chances of a future life,” Strelets exclaimed.
The Russian forces stationed around Chernobyl are believed to have been there from February 25th through March 31st, far longer than the recommended time frame.
Reports surfaced in late March claiming that Russian forces in the Red Forest area eschewed radiation protection and kicked up clouds of radioactive dust by driving armored vehicles through the area. One Chernobyl employee told Reuters that such actions were “suicidal” for Russian soldiers.
Valery Seida, acting general director of the Chernobyl plant, said of the Red Forest, "Nobody goes there ... for God's sake. There is no one there… They [Russian soldiers] drove wherever they needed to.” Seida said Russian soldiers had been warned above the radiation levels but that there is no evidence to suggest that they heeded such warnings.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense released drone footage on Wednesday showing what appeared to be trenches dug by Russian soldiers in the exclusion zone.
Hundreds of Russian soldiers were reportedly taken to a medical facility in the Belarusian city of Gomel to be treated for radiation poisoning, according to an employee at the Public Council at the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management.