- Russian soldiers looted highly radioactive “souvenirs” from Chernobyl, a Ukrainian agency said.
- The items could cause radiation burns, radiation sickness, and irreversible processes in the body.
- Last week Ukraine said it had regained control of the power plant, and Russian forces had withdrawn.
Russian soldiers took highly radioactive “souvenirs” from laboratories in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Ukraine said Saturday.
Invading Russian forces entered two laboratories in Chernobyl, which they looted and destroyed in an act of “nuclear terrorism,” the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management said on Facebook.
Russian troops entered a repository of ionizing radiation sources in the Ecocentre laboratory and “stole and damaged 133 sources with a total activity of about seven million becquerels,” the agency said.
It is comparable to 700kg (1534 pounds) of radioactive waste with the presence of beta and gamma radiation, according to the agency.
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“In the case of carrying such a souvenir with you for two weeks, radiation burns are guaranteed, and radiation diseases and non-reversible processes in the body begin,” the agency said.
Since one of the worst-ever nuclear disasters occurred at the Chernobyl power plant in 1986, it has been dangerously contaminated with radioactivity.
When it began its invasion of Ukraine, Russia seized the power plantand the 20-mile exclusion zone that surrounds it.
However, Ukraine said it had regained control last week, and Russian forces had withdrawn.
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