The president of Ukraine said that fighting broke out in Chernobyl after Russian troops entered the exclusion zone.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, said that Ukrainian troops are fighting with Russian forces who are trying to seize control of the power plant. The fighting increases the chance of an accidental hit on the region's sensitive nuclear storage facility, which could lead to widespread radiation contamination across Europe.
Russian forces claim to have destroyed more than 70 military targets and 11 airfields as part of a full Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian forces reportedly captured the international airport on the outskirts of Kyev.
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Russian occupation forces are trying to take over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated because our defenders are giving their lives, President Zelenskyy wrote.
Large parts of the Chernobyl exclusion zone have been closed off since the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in 1986. Two huge explosions blew off the reactor's 2,000-ton lid, covering the surrounding area with nuclear waste. For the next 24,000 years, the area was deemed uninhabitable by humans.
An advisor to the Ukrainian interior ministry has warned that fighting around the plant could cause the spread of dangerous radioactive material across Europe.
The National Guardsmen who guard the radioactive waste collectors are fighting hard, according to an advisor and former deputy minister at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The site is close to the Ukrainian border with Russia and sits on the most direct route between it and Kyev. There is a pontoon bridge at the Pripyat river just 14 miles north of the Chernobyl plant, according to a non-military satellite image posted on Tuesday.
It was originally published on Live Science.
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