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Ukraine said on Friday that radiation levels had increased in the Chernobyl exclusion zone after Russia seized the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
It added to concern about nuclear safety in Ukraine after the International Atomic Energy Agency urged troops to show “maximum restraint” around the country’s four operative reactors as well as at Chernobyl.
At the heart of the Chernobyl exclusion zone lie the remains of the reactor that exploded in 1986, unleashing a cloud of radioactive waste into Europe’s skies. Although they are entombed in concrete and steel, radiation levels are still high at the plant and a 30-kilometre radius around it is largely uninhabited.
Inside that zone, Ukraine’s nuclear regulatory agency and its delegation to the UN in Geneva said on Friday that gamma radiation was above control levels at a “significant number of observation points”.
That claim was supported by a monitoring group in Ukraine, Save Dnipro, whose online radiation map showed gamma ray levels on Friday far exceeding those in the days before Russia’s invasion.
Gamma radiation comes from decaying radioactive material and exposure to it can increase the risk of cancer. The nuclear agency suggested that the disturbance of soil by Russian troops might be to blame for the increase, although officials said it was difficult to investigate the causes because Ukraine had lost control of the area.
A British intelligence assessment backed up Ukraine’s claim that Russian troops had occupied the area on Thursday, in a move analysts said could be explained by Chernobyl’s geographic position between Kiev and the Russian border.
The White House separately condemned reports of hostages being taken at the plant and described Russia’s behaviour at Chernobyl as “incredibly alarming and greatly concerning”.
Russia’s Defence Ministry had earlier on Friday described radiation levels at the plant as normal and said its paratroopers would help to protect the site.
Nuclear experts said any release of the buried radioactive material at Chernobyl would probably require a concerted effort and said the risk might be just as high at currently operating reactors.
IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said the agency was gravely concerned by developments in Ukraine.
He said it was “appealing for maximum restraint to avoid any action that may put the country’s nuclear facilities at risk”. Ukrainian officials had offered assurances that the four operative plants were running smoothly, he said.
Ukraine disconnected its electricity grid from Russia’s on Thursday, in a move which the European Union said had been planned but had to be implemented earlier than expected.
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A Ukrainian soldier walks past the shell of a burnt military vehicle, on a street in Kiev. AP -
A screengrab from CCTV footage shows a missile hitting a residential building in Kiev. Reuters -
A man inspects a broken window, after shelling carried out by Russian troops in the Ukrainian capital. Reuters -
Ukrainian soldiers take positions outside a military centre as two cars burn on a street in Kiev. AP -
Medical specialists transport a woman, who was wounded in the shelling of an apartment building, to an ambulance, as her husband looks on. Reuters -
A woman outside her apartment building after it was damaged by a rocket, in Kiev. AP -
A Ukrainian police officer detains a driver on a street in Kiev. AP -
A soldier's helmet with a bullet hole on a street in the Ukrainian capital. AP -
Ukrainian soldiers walk by a damaged vehicle, at the site of fighting with Russian troops, in Kiev. Reuters -
Ukrainian policemen move parrots to safety after a high-rise apartment block was damaged by shelling in Kiev. EPA -
A screengrab from a video shows rescue workers carrying a person at the site of a damaged multi-storey residential building, south-west of the Ukrainian capital. Reuters -
A building damaged by shelling carried out by Russian troops in Kiev. EPA -
Helga Tarasova comforts her daughter Kira Shapovalova as they wait in an underground shelter during a bombing alert in Kiev. AFP -
A man walks past a building damaged by a rocket attack in the Ukrainian capital. AP -
Emergency services workers near an apartment building damaged by shelling in Kiev. Reuters -
Ukrainian soldiers collect unexploded shells in the capital. AFP -
An apartment building damaged by shelling in Kiev. Reuters -
Debris of a burnt military truck on a street in Kiev. AP -
Natali Sevriukova stands next to her home after a rocket attack in Kiev, Ukraine. AP -
People on foot and in cars move to cross from Ukraine to Poland at the Korczowa-Krakovets border crossing following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AFP -
Servicemen from the Ukrainian National Guard in central Kiev. Reuters -
Ukrainian soldiers in downtown Kiev after Russian troops reached the outskirts of the capital. AP Photo -
Police officers detain demonstrators in St. Petersburg, Russia. Hundreds of people gathered in Moscow and St. Petersburg on Thursday, protesting against Russia's attack on Ukraine. Similar protests took place in other Russian cities, and activists were also arrested. AP Photo -
Hungarian troops in Vasarosnameny, close to the border with Ukraine, prepare to help refugees. AP Photo -
Wrecked Russian army rocket launchers in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Reuters -
The aftermath of a rocket attack in Kiev. AP Photo -
A US Air Force jet refuels over Poland. Reuters -
Devastation after shelling in Ukraine's Luhansk enclave. Reuters -
The Royal Welsh Battlegroup from the UK makes its way to Estonia. Reuters -
Firefighters tackle a blaze in a building in Kiev. AFP -
The wreckage of an unidentified aircraft in a residential area in Kiev. Reuters -
Smoke rises near the Ukrainian Defence Ministry in Kiev. Reuters -
Russian military helicopters fly over the Ukrainian capital. AP -
An anxious wait to board a train to leave Kiev as the attack loomed. AP Photo -
Ukrainian servicemen on tanks in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine. AP Photo -
Ukraine troops said this destroyed armoured vehicle outside Kharkiv belonged to the Russian army. Reuters -
Rescuers at the crash site after a Ukraine armed forces Antonov aircraft was shot down in Kiev, according to the Ukrainian authorities. Reuters -
Ukrainian tanks that aim to repel an attack by the Russian military in the Luhansk enclave of Ukraine. AFP -
A Ukrainian State Border Guard Service base is ablaze after heavy shelling near Kiev. Reuters -
Damaged radar at a Ukrainian military plant outside Mariupol. Officials in Kiev say Russian troops have rolled into the country from the north, east and south. AP Photo -
Firefighters attend a blaze after bombing in the eastern Ukrainian town of Chuguiv, as Russian armed forces appeared to be bombarding Ukraine from several directions. AFP -
A traffic jam in Kiev, with many Ukrainians leaving their capital after Russian troops entered. EPA -
The Border Service of Ukraine released CCTV footage purporting to show Russian military vehicles passing a checkpoint to drive into Crimea. AP -
A man picks up fragments of military materiel on the street after an apparent Russian strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP -
Workers load the debris of a rocket on to a lorry in the aftermath of Russian shelling in Kiev. AP -
Emergency staff treat an injured man after bombing in Chuguiv. AFP -
An American woman in distress after crossing the border to flee the violence in Ukraine, in Medyka, Poland. Reuters -
People take shelter in a Kiev subway station, after Russian President Vladimir Putin authorised a military operation in eastern Ukraine. Reuters -
People in a rush near Kiev-Pasazhyrskyi railway station in the Ukrainian capital. AFP -
A Flightradar24.com screengrab shows a dearth of civilian aircraft in Ukrainian airspace after the Russian invasion. AP -
The aftermath of bombing in Chuguiv. AFP -
A Ukrainian rocket launcher vehicle prepares for action. Reuters -
Cars are driven across a field to leave the city of Kharkiv. Reuters -
People chant, carry placards and wave Ukrainian flags as they gather in Sydney, to demonstrate against Russian attacks on its neighbour. AP -
People with many of their belongings packed take shelter in a Metro station in Kiev. AFP -
Emergency services at the scene of an explosion at a military unit building in Kiev. EPA -
A Kiev resident sweeps up debris after Russian shelling. AP -
The first 40 soldiers of the 173rd US Army Airborne Brigade step off a military plane in Latvia. EPA -
More damage from shelling in Kiev. AP -
People wait at a bus station to travel to western parts of Ukraine, after violence in the east. Reuters -
A woman carries her cats in a quest for a safe haven. AFP -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy holds an urgent government meeting in Kiev to discuss the next step. AFP -
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and foreign policy chief Josep Borrell give a joint statement in Brussels, updating the press about the situation in Ukraine. EPA -
People survey the damage after bombing in Chuguiv. AFP -
A building on fire in Chuguiv. AFP
On Chernobyl, Mr Grossi said it was “of vital importance that the safe and secure operations of the nuclear facilities in that zone should not be affected or disrupted in any way”.
Exposure to small amounts of radiation is not fatal, and tourists sometimes visit the exclusion zone and the abandoned town of Pripyat. Some of the radioactive elements released four decades ago have decayed into nothing, but the isotopes Strontium-90 and Caesium-137 still linger today.
The most dangerous material on the site is a “lump in the basement of the reactor building,” said retired nuclear scientist Cheryl Rofer, who said the danger from an explosion or attack at Chernobyl was small.
The 1986 accident was compounded by the failure of Soviet officials to come clean about what had happened. It emerged after high radiation levels were detected in Sweden.
Some people kept their children inside as far away as Western Europe. In Germany, the accident helped to spur the rise of an anti-nuclear movement that ultimately succeeded in getting atomic energy cut out of the power grid.
