INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russian soldiers dug trenches in the highly-radioactive soil of the Chernobyl exclusion zone when they controlled the defunct nuclear power
the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster, on the first day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb
They withdrew on March 31 as Russia repositioned its forces away from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.Evgen Kramarenko, director of the Ukrainian
state agency managing the exclusion zone, sent VOA a series of ground-level photos showing trenches dug in the area after visiting the site
the most contaminated area of the Chernobyl exclusion zone
Tank tracks are also visible across the radioactive ground.In a March 31 statement, Ukraine's state nuclear agency Energoatom said that
soldiers have been hospitalized in the Belarusian city of Gomel, but neither Russia nor Belarus have confirmed this.The International Atomic
Energy Agency has said it is working to verify the reports that Russian soldiers were exposed to high doses of radiation while in the
exclusion zone.While disturbing the soil might increase the radiation exposure of occupying soldiers, "it is not plausible that it would
Energoatom said it was unclear what Russian troops were doing in the Red Forest.The area got its name when dozens of square kilometers of
pine trees turned red after absorbing radiation emitted from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
