Qualla: Capture of Chernobyl

Capture of Chernobyl: Introduction

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LLs, CC BY-SA 4.0. At seven in the morning on February 24, 2022, the workers showing up for the morning shift at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant were turned around at the gate. The shift change had been canceled. Russia had invaded. By two in the afternoon, Russian armored vehicles were at the plant administration building. By nightfall the entire Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the most contaminated patch of ground in Europe, was under Russian occupation. The 169 Ukrainian National Guard soldiers stationed at the plant carried only light weapons. Surrender was the only option that did not end with a firefight inside the world's most damaged nuclear site. For the next thirty-five days, the people who happened to be on shift that morning kept Chernobyl safe at gunpoint.

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Image: LLs | CC BY-SA 4.0

Capture of Chernobyl: The Shortest Route to Kyiv

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rr016, CC BY-SA 4.0. Chernobyl sits 130 kilometers north of Kyiv, just south of the Belarusian border. The road from Chernobyl to Kyiv, regional route P02, is in good condition. For Russian planners staging their main thrust through Belarus, this was the obvious approach: cross the Pripyat River, pas...

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Image: Rr016 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Capture of Chernobyl: Working at Gunpoint

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nick Rush-Cooper (Cooper42), CC BY 4.0. About 300 people were inside the exclusion zone when it fell. Roughly 100 were nuclear staff, including engineers and operators. The rest were medical staff, firefighters, and the 169 National Guard soldiers. The Russians refused to let any of them leave. The day shift simply did...

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Image: Nick Rush-Cooper (Cooper42) | CC BY 4.0

Capture of Chernobyl: Trenches in the Red Forest

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nick Rush-Cooper (Cooper42), CC BY 4.0. The Red Forest is the four square kilometers of pine woodland adjacent to Reactor 4. In the days after the 1986 disaster, the trees absorbed so much fallout that they turned a rusty orange-red and died. The topsoil there is among the most radioactive surface ground on the planet....

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Image: Nick Rush-Cooper (Cooper42) | CC BY 4.0

Capture of Chernobyl: The Withdrawal

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nick Rush-Cooper (Cooper42), CC BY 4.0. By late March the Russian thrust on Kyiv had stalled. On March 29, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin announced a withdrawal from the Kyiv area. On April 1, Ukraine's State Agency on Exclusion Zone Management confirmed Russian troops had completely left the Chernobyl...

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Image: Nick Rush-Cooper (Cooper42) | CC BY 4.0

Capture of Chernobyl: The Drone, and What Came After

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nick Rush-Cooper (Cooper42), CC BY 4.0. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the seizure of the exclusion zone a declaration of war against the whole of Europe. The IAEA insisted, repeatedly, that the safe operation of the nuclear facilities should not be disrupted. Both statements aged. In February 2025, a Russian dro...

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Image: Nick Rush-Cooper (Cooper42) | CC BY 4.0