Russian troops leave Chernobyl as Zelensky warns of 'battles ahead'

A satellite image of the Chernobyl nuclear plant on March 10, 2022.
(Image credit: Satellite image (c) 2022 Maxar Technologies)

More than a month after taking over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Russian troops have left the site, giving control back to local officials, Ukrainian authorities said early Friday.

The world's worst-ever nuclear disaster took place at Chernobyl in 1986, and Ukraine's state power company, Energoatom, said the Russian troops were exposed to "significant doses" of radiation while digging trenches around the plant. The Associated Press notes there has not been independent confirmation of this claim.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.