FILE IMAGE - Maxar satellite imagery closeup of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine on March 10, 2022. Satellite image (c) 2022 Maxar Technologies. LVIV, Ukraine - Russian troops were leaving the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and heading towards Ukraine's border with Belarus, the Ukrainian nuclear operator company said.The operator, Energoatom said that the Russian military was also preparing to leave Slavutych, a nearby city where power plant workers live.Energoatom also said reports were confirmed that the Russians dug trenches in the Red Forest, the 10-square-kilometer (nearly four-square-mile) area surrounding the Chernobyl plant within the Exclusion Zone, and received "significant doses of radiation."The Russian troops "panicked at the first sign of illness," which "showed up very quickly," and began to prepare to leave, the operator said.
The claim couldn't be independently verified.Russian forces are trying to seize the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, President Volodomyr Zelensky announced on social media.