More than 100 workers who perform maintenance and decommissioning work at the closed Chernobyl power station, as well as 200 guards, have been held captive for more than 12 days by Russian forces, Ukraine's nuclear regulatory agency is reporting.
The State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine (SNRCU) says similar actions are taking place at the captured nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia, which was seized on Friday.
Despite the Ukrainian workers' refusal of aid from Russia at the Chernobyl plant, which was captured on Feb. 24, military personnel nonetheless staged a rally for Russian media to give the impression that the aid was readily accepted, SNRCU said.
Part of the deception was to have Russian soldiers dress in Novarka uniforms and accept the aid for TV cameras.
Novarka was a consortium that erected the ''New Safe Confinement'' or ''New Shelter'' around the plant after the original ''shelter structure'' or ''sarcophagus'' was built to contain the radiation at the site following the 1986 explosion and fire. The consortium completed the NSC in 2019.
The workers, who have continued to refuse the aid, are running low on food and medical supplies. SNRCU said the situation was similar at the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Energoatom, a government agency that deals with nuclear safety in Ukraine, has reported that Russia was expected to take 14 Russian reporters on a tour of the Zaporizhzhia site, along with more humanitarian aid to create the impression that the facility was safe and secure.
A Telegram report indicated there were 50 Russian heavy military vehicles at the station and at least 400 soldiers.
The operation of the Zaporizhzhia power usually relies on a a regular rotation of staff, but Russia has not allowed that. The same workers have continued to manage the plant.
SNRCU reported there is a trend of steadily deteriorating indicators — in particular, the concentration of long-lived radionuclides in the atmosphere. Automated systems for measuring radiation levels in and around the plant inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone have been disabled, it said.
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