Ukrainians say Russians are withdrawing through Chernobyl to regroup in Belarus.
After a month of intense fighting near Kyiv, some Russian military units are withdrawing through the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to Belarus to regroup, the Ukrainian military said on Sunday, suggesting the Russian army was using the site of the defunct reactor for logistics.
Lingering radiation from the 1986 nuclear disaster poses only modest health risks, though those may be rising for Russian troops positioned in the area as dozens of small wildfires in the surrounding forest were spreading radiation in smoke.
The Ukrainian military’s statement came as another sign that the Russian attack on Kyiv has largely stalled in battles raging for weeks now in several mostly destroyed suburban towns.
There was no way to independently confirm the Ukrainian statement, but it was consistent with what Western intelligence agencies have said about the fighting to the northwest of Kyiv.
@nytimes