There was not a single building that the Russians did not loot: stories of witnesses of the occupation of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
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At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russian army occupied the Chernobyl zone for 36 days and threatened the world with a new nuclear disaster. Local residents told the “Ukrainian Witness” project about the events they experienced during the occupation. A local hunter named Vasyl told about the planes entering the Ukrainian airspace from the side of Belarus. “They launched rockets, which then flew to Kyiv. They immediately turned around and flew back. It was hell. It was hard to watch all this. We had an agricultural company here. They took everything away. They came in cars, ATVs with machine guns. They pulled out and took away everything they could This is some kind of plague,” the man emphasized. Exclusion zone. Photo: “Ukrainian Witness” project He recalls that the occupiers were looking for ATO participants. Men were forced to undress and searched for tattoos. A local resident said that heavy machinery of the occupiers drove by her house continuously for 15 hours. “They just drove in on an armored personnel carrier like thieves and took everything from the store in 15 minutes: candies, feminine hygiene products. Three people from the village were shot in the back, among the victims was a 14-year-old boy,” the woman said. According to local residents, looting prevailed in the village of Straholissya, which is not far from Chernobyl. The occupiers stole new equipment, for which the owners have not even received documents, said one of the residents, Volodymyr. He worked in a local shop. He saw with his own eyes how the occupiers robbed the locals. He says they also destroyed the newly repaired road. Another local resident said that the occupiers broke the doors and windows of the houses. “There is not a single building in Chernobyl that they did not rob. They even stole KRAZs contaminated with radiation. After the Russian soldiers, road signs disappeared from the roadside, and fresh markings from the road,” the project says. Maksym Shevchuk, Deputy Head of the State Agency of Ukraine for Management of the Exclusion Zone, told about how the occupiers engaged in looting during the occupation. “The state of the offices and enterprises is as follows: every building has survived looting. The agency’s office has also been ransacked, you can enter it only through the back door, because the main entrance has not yet been checked for the presence of mines,” said the deputy head of the state agency. Recalling the occupation of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the leading engineer of the physical protection service, he says that the occupiers were in “full equipment: they marched in a column with BMPs and armored trucks, armored personnel carriers and T-72 tanks.” It will be recalled that the employees of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant performed their duties while under occupation. During the occupation, Russian soldiers looted everything around. Even spoons and forks were taken from the nearby hotel. The occupiers left the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, taking away their own broken equipment and taking looted equipment and cars. During the retreat, the occupiers captured Ukrainian National Guardsmen guarding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Some of them were returned home during several exchanges of prisoners of war in the fall and winter. But a significant number of soldiers are still in captivity.
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