Russia’s Chernobyl seizure seen as nuclear risk ‘nightmare’

By CARA ANNA and INNA VARENYTSIA
Associated Press

CHERNOBYL, Ukraine (AP) — When Russian forces invaded and occupied the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, they dug trenches in one of the world’s most radioactive places. Experts fear that they were, in effect, digging their own graves. Thousands of tanks and troops rumbled into the Chernobyl exclusion zone at the start of the war, churning up soil contaminated by the world’s worst nuclear disaster. As the anniversary of the April 26, 1986, accident approaches and Russia’s war continues, it’s clear that Ukrainian authorities were never prepared for this scenario. Russia’s invasion marks the first time that occupying a nuclear plant was part of a nation’s military strategy.