CHERNOBYL

Feb. 26, 2022

After a brief but fierce battle, Russian troops were able to capture the Chernobyl nuclear plant in northern Ukraine, the site of one of the worst nuclear disasters in human history.

About:

  • Located around 16 km away from the city of Chernobyl and a little over 100 km away from Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv, the power plant witnessed the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986.

  • The disaster occurred between April 25-26, when a group of technicians in what was then Soviet-controlled Ukraine carried out a botched safety test that led to a series of explosions at Chernobyl’s reactor No. 4 and a partial meltdown of its core. The explosions exposed the core and released clouds of radioactive material into the atmosphere.

  • It is said to have released 400 times more radiation than the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in Japan.

  • In fact, the catastrophe is considered one of the key factors that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union a few years later.

  • Why did Russia capture Chernobyl? Seizing Chernobyl was a strategic decision that gave Russian troops quick and easy access to Kyiv from Belarus, which is an ally of Moscow. By capturing Chernobyl, Russia has secured a route into Ukraine for its ground forces.