UN watchdog opens investigation after Ukraine said Russian troops at Chernobyl got sick from high radiation levels

The UN atomic watchdog said it is investigating after Ukraine said Russian soldiers at Chernobyl were exposed to high radiation levels and left sick.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday evening that Russian troops had transferred control of the plant to Ukrainian personnel.

Yevhen Kramarenko, the head of the agency in charge of the exclusion zone, confirmed this to The Guardian.

The power plant was taken over by the Russians on February 24.

The troops were exposed to radioactive dust when they entered the most contaminated part of the exclusion zone.

The soldiers received a lot of radiation after digging trenches in the Red Forest, and they panicked at the first sign of illness, according to The Guardian.

The symptoms showed up very quickly, according to The Guardian.

The soldiers left the zone because of fears over the radiation exposure, according to the report.

The IAEA said it would send experts to the plant to investigate the reports of exposure.

Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986 and the Red Forest surrounds it. The most contaminated area is the forest.

Two workers at the plant said that the troops kicked up clouds of radioactive dust while driving through the forest. Some of the Russian soldiers did not know they were in a radiation zone.

After the 1986 nuclear accident, the power plant was fully decommissioned and the remaining work at the site is mostly directed toward decontamination.