The Russian troops who occupied Ukraine's Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant from the first week of their invasion until late last week dug pits and trenches in the site's highly radioactive exclusion zone, according to drone footage from Ukraine's military released Wednesday by Energoatom, the state-owned operator of Ukraine's nuclear power plans, CNN reports.
"The exclusion zone was established because of high radiation levels in the area after a nuclear reactor exploded at the plant in April 1986," Reuters notes. The drone video "shows vacant pits and trenches of abandoned military fortifications in an area known as the Red Forest," CNN reports, named for the pine trees that turned red after absorbing radiation and "considered the most polluted area in the entire Chernobyl exclusion zone — and off limits to anyone who does not work there or have special permission."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
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.
-
4 ways to give back this holiday seasonThe Explainer If your budget is feeling squeezed, remember that money is not the only way you can be generous around the holidays
-
4 tips for hosting an ecofriendly ThanksgivingThe Week Recommends Coming together for the holidays typically produces a ton of waste, but with proper preparation, you can have an environmentally friendly gathering.
-
Jussie Smollet conviction overturned on appealSpeed Read The Illinois Supreme Court overturned the actor's conviction on charges of staging a racist and homophobic attack against himself in 2019
-
Dark energy data suggest Einstein was rightSpeed Read Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity has been proven correct, according to data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
-
New DNA tests of Pompeii dead upend popular storiesSpeed Read An analysis of skeletal remains reveals that some Mount Vesuvius victims have been wrongly identified
-
NASA's Europa Clipper blasts off, seeking an oceanSpeed Read The ship is headed toward Jupiter on a yearslong journey
-
Detailed map of fly's brain holds clues to human mindSpeed Read This remarkable fruit fly brain analysis will aid in future human brain research
-
How radioactive rhinos may prevent poachingUnder The Radar Injecting radioactive material will make horns harder to smuggle internationally
-
Blind people will listen to next week's total eclipseSpeed Read While they can't see the event, they can hear it with a device that translates the sky's brightness into music
-
Melting polar ice is messing with global timekeepingSpeed Read Ice loss caused by climate change is slowing the Earth's rotation
-
An amphibian that produces milk?speed read Caecilians, worm-like amphibians that live underground, produce a milk-like substance for their hatchlings
