Vlad’s army ABANDONING Chernobyl nuclear site and ‘walking away’ to Belarus in major Russian climbdown, US says
RUSSIAN troops are withdrawing from Chernobyl nuclear site and walking back towards Belarus in a major climbdown, US military sources have claimed.
The site of the 1986 nuclear tragedy in northern Ukraine was captured in the opening days of the war, sparking fears of a major radioactive disaster as a result of heavy fighting around the plant.
Pentagon sources have reported that Russian forces are "walking away" from the Chernobyl facility and heading north towards Belarus.
"Chernobyl is [an] area where they [the Russians] are beginning to reposition some of their troops," the official said.
They added that the Russians are "leaving, walking away from the Chernobyl facility and moving into Belarus".
The official went on: "We think that they are leaving, I can't tell you that they're all gone."
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Earlier on Wednesday, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the US had seen Russian troops around the capital Kyiv moving north toward or into Belarus.
He was quick to stress that the US didn't see this as a withdrawal, but as an attempt by Russia to resupply, refit, and then reposition its troops.
"We don't know exactly where these troops are going to go," he said.
But speaking on CNN and Fox Business, he noted that Russia has talked about prioritising the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
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Kirby also said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Army Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have continued to try to speak with their Russian counterparts but they have not answered and they have not replied with a willingness to do so.
It comes as seven buses with Russian soldiers suffering from acute radiation syndrome arrived in a hospital in Belarus from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
The troops had reportedly dug trenches in the highly-radioactive Red Forest close to the plant, according to UNIAN News Agency.
Earlier this week, it was reported that radioactive material was stolen from the site of the damaged nuclear power station.
In the wrong hands, there is a low risk the materials could be used to create a "dirty bomb", military experts told .
A dirty bomb is a device that combines radioactive material with a conventional explosive.
The looters also swiped radioactive isotopes from a lab used to monitor radiation levels at the site.
It comes as...
- Terrified Roman Abramovich asked if he was going to die after being poisoned by a deadly WWI chemical agent.
- Russia has said it is to “drastically reduce” forces near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv as its invasion continues to falter.
- Putin “must think we were born yesterday” if he thinks Britain believes his troops are pulling out of Kyiv.
- A suspected arms depot was allegedly hit by a Ukrainian missile, sparking firework-like explosions.
- Russia has reportedly lost a seventh colonel since the start of fighting in another major blow to Putin's army.
- Putin has re-opened Bond-villain style military bases deep inside the Arctic Circle.
- Chechnya's fighters arrived in Ukraine with a fearsome reputation, but have faced bloody slaughter on the battlefield, reports claim.
- Paranoid Putin and his inner circle are reportedly living in top-secret nuclear bunkers as the bloody war unfolds in Ukraine.
Ukraine's State Agency blamed Russian troops for stealing "unstable" nuclear samples from Chernobyl after ransacking a £5m lab.
Putin's men are believed to have then destroyed the lab which was full of nuclear waste and located in the radioactive exclusion zone.
The agency - responsible for the site of the world’s worst nuclear meltdown in 1986 - said the stolen radionuclides are "highly active".
Radionuclides are unstable atoms of chemical elements that release radiation - the fact these are now in the hands of the Russians is a major concern.
It said it hoped Russian troops “will harm themselves and not the civilized world” with their lethal loot from the November Central Analytical Laboratory.
In a statement, the agency said: "The laboratory contained highly active samples and samples of radionuclides that are now in the hands of the enemy."
Chernobyl is [an] area where they [the Russians] are beginning to reposition some of their troops
Pentagon source
Shelling has continued despite the apparent scaling down of Russian troops, with Putin's forces bombarding the outskirts of Kyiv and the besieged northern city of Chernihiv.
John Kirby said Russian troops were seen leaving Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy, but added that the capital, home to three million people, was still being attacked by air and ground strikes.
Military experts say Russia has reframed its war goals in Ukraine in the face of stiffer-than-expected resistance.
It is vital for Putin to present the conflict as a victory, despite a woeful campaign that has seen Russia lose more than 17,000 troops, and at least eight top colonels.
Kirby added that the far-right Russian mercenaries Wagner Group had deployed about 1,000 fighters to the Donbas region, declared as a priority for Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said in the past that Wagner and other private groups neither represent the Russian state nor are paid by it, though he says they have a right to operate provided they do not break Russian law.
The European Union imposed sanctions on Wagner last year, accusing it of fuelling violence, looting natural resources and destabilizing countries around the world.
DISASTER FEARS
Earlier this month, Ukraine lost all contact with Chernobyl sparking fears of a potentially dangerous loss of power at the site.
Chernobyl lies 80 miles north of Kyiv on a strategic route into the capital from Belarus, Putin's puppet state where he has stationed 30,000 troops.
Soldiers were said to be fighting close to the giant sarcophagus sealing in the damaged reactor.
Following the Russian takeover, the facility lost power, and backup generators with just two days of fuel were left to run the complex.
Chernobyl workers were taken hostage by Russian troops, presenting another major risk to the day-to-day running of the site.
With the condition of the former power plant's nuclear storage facilities "unknown" at the time, there were fears of a dangerous radiation leak following heavy fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
A day after the takeover, Chernobyl radiation levels spiked, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Ukraine's State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate blamed the spike on a "disturbance" caused by Russian forces rolling through.
It said the "large amount of heavy military equipment through the exclusion zone" had unsettled the topsoil at the sensitive site.
Officials warned it had resulted in "the release of contaminated radioactive dust into the air", but said the rise was so far "insignificant".
Just last week, wildfires around Chernobyl sparked by Russian shelling scorched 25,000 acres of forest.
Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk accused Russia of "irresponsible" acts around the occupied Chernobyl power station as she urged the United Nations to dispatch a mission to assess the risks.
She claimed Russian forces were preventing firefighters from bringing large numbers of fires in the zone under control.
"In the context of nuclear safety, the irresponsible and unprofessional actions of Russian servicemen present a very serious threat not only to Ukraine but to hundreds of millions of Europeans," Vereshchuk said on her Telegram account.
Ukraine's human rights commissioner Lyudmila Denisova warned an increased level of radioactive air pollution could threaten neighbouring countries.
"Control and suppression of fires is impossible due to the capture of the exclusion zone by Russian troops," she wrote on Facebook.
"As a result of combustion, radionuclides are released into the atmosphere, which are transported by wind over long distances. This threatens radiation to Ukraine, Belarus and European countries."
The politician warned that failing to intervene could see "irreparable consequences" for "the whole world".
"Catastrophic consequences can be prevented only by immediate de-occupation of the territory by Russian troops," Ms Denisova added.
The April 1986 reactor explosion and fire killed at least 31 and spewed a huge cloud of radioactive particles into the air.
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It blew across Europe and rained down over thousands of square miles.
The Chernobyl site is still protected by a large exclusion zone where people can only visit for short periods to avoid high doses of radiation.
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