Ukraine nuclear agency sees rise in Chornobyl radiation

Ukraine’s nuclear agency on Friday warned radiation at the defunct Chornobyl nuclear power plant had exceeded control levels after Russian troops seized control of the area.

Experts at the state nuclear agency said in a statement that the change was due to the movement of a large number of heavy military machinery lifting the top layer of soil into the air.

The condition of the Chornobyl nuclear facilities and other locations remains unchanged, according to the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine.

An explosion and fire at the Chornobyl power plant on April 26, 1986, led to the world’s worst nuclear disaster.

Russia launched an unprecedented invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, with officials warning on Friday that Russian troops were closing in on the capital city of Kyiv.

The assault has ratcheted up fears of a devastating humanitarian crisis and represents one of the worst security crises in Europe in decades.

Russian forces captured control of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant on Thursday, prompting an advisor to the presidential office to warn it was now “impossible” to consider the shuttered reactor safe.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an aide of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, described the attack by Russian troops as “pointless,” Reuters reported, and said it represented “one of the most serious threats in Europe today.”

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said Friday that it was monitoring an increase in radiation levels, but the situation was not critical for the time being.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday that Russian paratroopers had agreed with the Ukrainian military to jointly ensure the facility’s safety.

“Joint activities involving Russian paratroopers and Ukrainian service members … guarantee that nationalist units and other terrorist organizations won’t be able to take advantage of the current developments in the country in order to stage a nuclear provocation,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

Estimates of the numbers of direct and indirect casualties from the Chornobyl disaster vary, although environmental group Greenpeace puts the eventual death toll from cancers caused by Chornobyl at close to 100,000.

The Chornobyl exclusion zone, a vast and empty land of roughly 1,000 square miles around the shuttered reactor disaster, lies between the capital city of Kyiv and the Belarus-Ukraine border.

Speaking shortly after Russian troops took control of the nuclear power plant on Thursday, Ukraine’s Zelenskyy said via Twitter, “Our defenders are giving their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated.”

“This is a declaration of war against the whole of Europe,” he added.

The United Nations…