Radioactive Scavengers: while fleeing from the Chernobyl power station, the occupants have stolen computers and tea sets

Towards the evening of 31st March, Russian forces have fled from the Chernobyl power station, which they had captured on 24th February. They forced the powerplant staff to sign documents to transfer the power station to them, and they claim to have been “guarding” the location for over a month. During their retreat to Belarus, they have taken to scavenging for valuable items.

This was announced during the united Ukrainian television channels stream by the head of the state agency for the control of the Exclusion Zone, Eugene Kramarenko.

“Minor movement (of the occupants – red.) were happening as early as the morning. Vehicles stationed in the area of the powerplant. After part of the vehicle group had withdrawn, the senior member of the occupying force proposed to sign the transfer documents and threatened that otherwise, they would take the powerplant workers hostage and take them away to Belarus. According to the documents, the man in charge had the surname Yakushev and callsign “Devyanosty” (ninetieth). The transfer was effectively signed under duress.” – explains Kramarenko.

“They began to take any valuable items which were still in the area and load them into their vehicles. During the Russian withdrawal, the powerplant workers were forbidden from leaving their offices and workspaces. A lot of items were taken. As far as we know, they haven’t left anything of their own there, but the station workers are cautious about leaving or moving within the area, since explosive devices may have been left behind. Anything with any value has been stolen – computers, some coffee machines, kettles and several crates with other items have been loaded onto trucks and taken away,” says the head of the state agency.

59 workers remain within the Chernobyl power station. They have looked around the territory and have not found any Russian occupants. They have not left the powerplant since it may be dangerous, in particular in case minefields had been set in the area.

“At present, we cannot determine whether there are any occupants within the city of Chernobyl. There is a hotel there, and the Russians have even taken away the plates, knives, forks and tea sets which they had found inside,” – adds Kramarenko.

Previously the vice prime-minister - the Minister of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, Iryna Vereshchuk – said that the occupants could have set up mines in the area of the Chernobyl power station, since they had been bringing in weaponry into the area.

“Where they were with their outposts, particularly in the Rudoy forest, which is mentioned in many media outlets, no powerplant workers were allowed to enter. Therefore, the workers can neither confirm nor deny the presence of minefields,” – says Kramarenko.

He assures that, “despite the disappearance of some valuable items, all the detectors appear to be showing normal readings. No significant damage to the infrastructure or the structural integrity of the powerplant itself have been detected so far. Although we will need to check this by sending specialists to asses the damage which could have been sustained by parts of the Chernobyl power station”.

Radiation detectors are not sending their results into the overall system. “Manually, the workers have checked that no excess radiation is being emitted, but the entire automated system will need to be replaced. Furthermore, it is not clear what causes the system to malfunction – maybe the server system had been damaged, or at least disabled. We will find out.” – says the head of the state agency.

As a reminder, on the 24th of January, the Chernobyl power station had been captured by Russian soldiers and the station’s staff were held hostage. On the 9th of March, the station was disconnected from the electricity grid, although the power supply was soon repaired.

Russia was using the powerplant as a staging area for vehicles and weaponry....

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