Alexander Ermoshenko via Reuters
UKRANE – 37 days after the start of the war in Ukraine, the Russian army was supposed to de Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plantfrom humanitarian corridors must end the evacuation of civilians Mariupol and Moscow accuses Ukraine of bombing Belgorod in western Russia. the Huffpost takes stock of the situation.
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Russians left Chernobyl sick and with hostages, Kiev says
Russian troops have left the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that they have been operating since the beginning of theinvasion of Ukraine on February 24, taking hostagesannounced on Thursday, March 31 in the evening of officials on Kiev†
“On leaving the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the Russian occupiers took members of the National Guard hostage since February 24,” Ukraine’s state agency Energoatom said on Telegram, citing workers. It was unclear how many Ukrainian soldiers were taken hostage by Russian troops.
The service had recently indicated that Russian troops had begun their departure from the factory, which is located about 100 kilometers north of Kiev. When leaving the factory, the Russians were engaged in “looting of buildings, theft of equipment and other valuables,” the agency accused.
According to Energoatom quoted by: the guard, the Russian army is said to have left after being contaminated by high doses of radiation while digging trenches in the forest in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. The troops “went into a panic after the first signs of illness”, which appeared “very quickly”. They would have been sent to Belarus for treatment.
The United Nations Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has indicated that it is investigating the matter and currently has no evidence to corroborate Energoatom’s statements. Ukrainian specialists will also inspect the factory for possible “explosive devices,” the same source said.
“Russian armed forces will reopen a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to… Zaporozhye (220 km northwest) on April 1 from 10 a.m. Moscow time,” or 9 a.m. in Paris, the Russian defense ministry said.
The Ukrainian government was said to send 45 buses on Thursday to evacuate civilians from the besieged port of Mariupol (southeast) after Moscow announced a ceasefire to allow their departure. According to Kiev, 17 buses have already left for Mariupol.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was ready to direct these evacuation operations from Friday towards the city of Zaporozhye, 220 km to the northwest, provided necessary guarantees are obtained.
This measure was taken in response to “a personal request from the French President (Emmanuel Macron) and the German Chancellor (Olaf Scholz) to Russian President Vladimir Putin,” the ministry added in a statement.
The humanitarian situation is catastrophic in Mariupol, where tens of thousands of civilians are trapped and suffering from the lack of food and the cold. Both sides regularly accuse each other of frustrating civilian evacuation operations.
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Bombings in Belgorod, Russia
A Russian official accused Ukraine Friday (April 1) of carrying out a helicopter attack on an “oil depot” in the western Russian city of Belgorod, about 40 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
“A fire in an oil depot was started by an airstrike by two Ukrainian army helicopters that entered Russian territory at low altitude,” the governor of the region said on his Telegram account of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
In another message, he stated that the fire service was working hard to put out the fire and that two employees of the depot had been injured. The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry says 170 rescue workers are involved. Public company Rosneft, which owns the property, told Russian news agencies it had evacuated its staff there.
See also on The HuffPost: Inside images of the attacked Ukraine nuclear power plant
