Kirdey: Nuclear Engineer Liudmyla Kozak separated through a 12 -hour shift in the Chernobyl factory that did not exist when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and workers heard a strong explosion from the edge called the exception zone around the location.
When the military aircraft briefly overwrite the head and the sound of battles getting closer, Kozak and his colleagues realized that the shifting of the next worker would not arrive to free them according to the schedule that morning.
In the middle of the afternoon, “We saw at our monitor that some unwashed guests crept in,” Kozak, 45, told Reuters in Slavutych, a city near the Belarusian border where Chernobyl staff lived.
The workers will witness the most dramatic events in the factory since the 1986 nuclear disaster, which commemorated 36 years marked by a guard in Slavutych on Tuesday.
After fighting Ukrainian troops around the factory that is still in the radioactive, Russian troops have won control of their territory on the first night of the invasion – part of the land, sea and air of Moscow in Ukraine which is the biggest attack in European European countries since the Second World War.
“They arrested us, then let us return to our work station after a long negotiation. They said we could work, that no one would bother us,” Kozak said. “We do their orders, try not to conflict with them or conflict – not to trigger greater conflict.”
As the day passes, the Ukraine authorities and the International Energy Agency repeatedly called for the release of fatigue staff, which operate radioactive waste facilities.
Kozak said Russian troops used facilities in the factory area as a base for a closer attack on Kyiv, which is 100 km (62 miles) from the factory.
“They went to Kyiv, shot, then returned to the factory and resting, bathing, washing, eating some food and sleeping, then went to Kyiv again,” he said, adding that the army kept a large number of weapons and military equipment in Chernobyl.
Reuters cannot verify his account independently. While the factory was occupied, Ukraine warned about Russian troops carrying weapons and ammunition to the exception zone – the area around Chornobyl which was usually closed to anyone who did not work there or had a special permit due to radiation risk.
On April 26, 1986, a sudden wave of power during the reactor system test destroyed the 4 nuclear power plant unit in Chornobyl. Accidents and fires that followed issued a large amount of radioactive material into the environment, US. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said. Britannica calls this the worst disaster in the history of nuclear power generation.
Kozak did not see the withdrawal of Russian army at the end of March. Before that, after 25 days at the occupied factory, he and other workers were allowed to leave and other staff took their place.
“My shift lasted 600 hours, not 12,” he said with a tired smile.