"I think there has to be concern that any heavy fighting in that immediate vicinity could potentially cause a new nuclear disaster," he said. Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, agreed that was the most likely reason. "This is a stepping stone towards Kyiv." Loading. "If what we're seeing - what Vladimir Putin is saying is substantively supported by his action - that's what we're going to see. "Kyiv is the target it would appear and that's critical. "So that's basically the pathway down and this is indicative of where they're going. "If you're coming down from the north, from Belarus, but mostly from just in the Russian corner, the border between Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, you're passing through Chernobyl," he said. John Blaxland, a professor of international security and intelligence studies at ANU's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, said Chernobyl was likely taken because of its location on the way to Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. "Also, they won't give the Ukrainians a potential opportunity to blow up the damaged reactor number four, which blew up back in April 1986, as an act of defensive deterrence in the form of contaminating the areas to halt the rapid advance of the Russian military."ĭr Muraviev was also sceptical of Mr Prystaiko's statement that Chernobyl was "not protected" as he said military forces were usually trained to operate in radiation-affected areas. Zelenskyy says 'war returning to the territory of Russia' after overnight drone attack on Moscow. At least six dead after Russian missile attack on Zelenskyy's home city Kryvyi Rih, says Ukraine.Moscow mayor accuses Ukraine of drone strike on city buildings.Read more on Russia's invasion of Ukraine: "The Russians just want to ensure - and I know it sounds a bit uncomfortably strange when you're talking about an invasion force - that nuclear safeguards are in place and they will not be responsible for any accidents," he said. However, Alexey Muraviev, a national security and strategic expert at Curtin University, said the Russians targeted Chernobyl because it was a strategic asset near the border that they wanted to protect. Is Russia protecting it from 'accidents'? Kremlin says charges against Prigozhin will be dropped, Wagner fighters leave Rostov-on-Don - as it happened Ukraine's government, anonymous Russian military sources and experts have all posited different explanations of why Russia captured the site, including its value as a threat, as a possible weapon for Ukraine and its location. About a week before the Russian invasion, the Chernobyl zone was shut down for tourists. The Chernobyl disaster in then-Soviet Ukraine sent clouds of nuclear material across much of Europe in 1986 after a botched safety test in the fourth reactor of the plant.ĭecades later, it became a tourist attraction. "The counterpart added that there had been no casualties nor destruction at the industrial site." "Ukraine has informed the IAEA that 'unidentified armed forces' have taken control of all facilities of the State Specialized Enterprise Chornobyl NPP, located within the Exclusion Zone," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement. The remaining activities around the plant where Europe's worst nuclear disaster occurred in 1986 include nuclear waste management and storage, according to the State Specialized Enterprise Chernobyl NPP.
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