Protecting Chernobyl From Terrorists: Russia
Moscow, Feb 25: Russia said on Friday that its troops were holding the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine — where a major nuclear disaster took place in 1986 — in order to protect it from terrorists.
The Russian Defence Ministry said it needed to protect the plant from “nationalistic groups and other terrorist organisations” who could stage a nuclear provocation, BBC reported.
Russia also said that the levels of radiation in the plant’s surrounding area were normal and that staff were continuing to monitor levels of radioactivity. The Russian troops seized the nuclear plant on Thursday soon after invading Ukraine.
Russia also made various claims about its gains in the war, saying its troops had advanced in Donetsk and Luhansk. It said more than 150 Ukrainian troops had surrendered and dozens of Ukrainian military infrastructure sites, weapons and vehicles had been destroyed.
Ukraine’s armed forces, meanwhile, made their own competing claims, saying they were holding the line in Donetsk and Luhansk where Russian troops had “no success” and had also pushed back Russian troops in other areas.
