Terror of invasion through nuke hell
RUSSIAN troops could blast their way through nuclear disaster site Chernobyl to strike Kyiv, it was feared last night.
Close to 8,000 extra Ukrainian Border Guards have been sent to the radiation exclusion zone, near Belarus, as security.
Ukraine is bracing for a Russian invasion using Chernobyl as a gateway for tanks to encircle the capital Kyiv.
The 1,000 sq mile exclusion zone reaches Ukraine’s Belarus border to the north and may become the focus of death and destruction 36 years after the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
Up to 80,000 Russian and Belarusian troops are in Belarus, supposedly for military exercises. Recently, Lt Col Yuri Shakraichuk, from the Ukraine State Border Guard Service, said: “Chernobyl is an area of increased danger. We increased the strength of protection.”
Yesterday we had special permission to visit the zone, a creepy area of derelict factory buildings and houses, Soviet-era installations and overgrown facilities hidden in the vast pine forest.
Many in Ukraine believe Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to expand Russia’s domination of its surrounding countries to a USSR Mark II.
As we entered the zone, officials gave us radiation detecting devices that pinged below threshold readings intermittently during a three-hour tour.
Just 145 civilians have resettled here, mostly over 70, who like the military are
largely unseen around the site of the 1986 nuclear power plant meltdown.
It is believed the extra Ukrainian troops here are securing and searching abandoned buildings in case Russia’s Spetsnaz special forces cross the border to spearhead an invasion.
Ukrainian National Guard troops also posted to the area held war gaming exercises on Tuesday.
In Belarus, a Russian Krasukha 4 electronic warfare vehicle was spotted in Zarechhye, in the Gomel region.
Russia is expanding its “electronic warfare” battalions towards Ukraine and these can be used to jam communications or listen in on them.
The Krasukha is capable of smashing radar and aviation systems and would help an invasion by combating defensive radar systems.
The highway running all the way from Chernobyl to Kyiv means Russian tanks could negotiate the 120-mile distance easily and quickly.
Russian troops could use abandoned structures for cover as Ukraine may be nervous about launching air strikes and artillery in case they spread radiation buried in the ground and in buildings.
And a lattice of once-top secret Soviet roadways through dense pine forests are still in good condition and could also be used by an invasion force. One source said: “The Russians will have the details of secret Soviet road systems and will know they can still be used quickly to get tanks south to the outskirts of Kyiv.”
A once-secret road through the forest leads to Chernobyl Two – a town within Chernobyl region that was top secret as far back in the 1970s.
It was linked to a now abandoned intercontinental ballistic missile warning system called Duga.
A few miles away, the Chernobyl site of Number 4 Reactor was covered in hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete wrapped in metal by 2016.
On April 26, 1986, during tests, power dropped and the reactor became unstable before exploding.
About 49,000 people were evacuated. Official figures claim a death toll of 31, although it is feared it will be thousands from radiation.
Meanwhile, 125,000 Russian troops are gathered along Ukraine’s eastern flank in Donbas, 500 miles from Kyiv.
Many here believe Russia might try a lightning strike south to Kyiv.
But if they do they could face a defiant counterattack from Ukraine.
A local woman, from Kyiv who chose not to be named, said: “People here are worried, determined and angry.
“Many have plans to arm themselves or have already got guns.”