Russian forces declared that they were leaving the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the nearby city of Slavutych, according to a statement Thursday from Ukraine’s state-run energy company.

The account supports a report from the Pentagon late on Wednesday that Russian troops were withdrawing from the area around the defunct plant in Ukraine’s north, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history and an area Russian forces had occupied for weeks.

Russian forces seized the site near the Belarusian border, where workers have safeguarded nuclear waste since 1986, early in the invasion. For a time, they prevented the specialised staff required to keep the decommissioned plant safe from leaving their posts.

This created broader fears that the plant, which needs constant monitoring, could be compromised. The International Atomic Energy Agency had warned last week that recent intense fighting in the area could jeopardise workers’ ability to keep the defunct plant safe, as employees were forced to work round-the-clock shifts for days on end.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Ukraine on Tuesday for talks with government officials over the safety of the country’s nuclear facilities.

Several groups of Russians marched toward the Ukrainian border with Belarus, according to a statement on Telegram from Energoatom.

A group of soldiers in Slavutych, where many of the workers live, was also withdrawing towards the border, though a small number of Russian forces still remain at the nuclear site, Energoatom said. Fighting had intensified last week in Slavutych, which was built for evacuees from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

In a statement on Wednesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said there had been no staff rotation at the plant since March 21. They also expressed concern about the safety of a nuclear power plant in Ukraine’s south.

(New York Times News Service)

Russians ‘rally around Putin

President Vladimir V. Putin’s approval ratings have reached levels unseen in years, according to an independent poll released on Thursday, as many Russians rally around the flag in the face of mounting international pressure.
Eighty-three per cent of Russians said they approved of Putin’s actions, up from 69 percent in January, according to a poll by the Levada Centre, an independent pollster.
While some observers believe polls in Russia do not reflect public opinion accurately, most agree that they are useful in gauging the dynamics of people’s moods. The poll by Levada was conducted among more than 1,600 people across the country. (NYTNS)