Ukraine holds chilling nuclear disaster drill as hazmat troops ‘spray fallout victims' in case Putin blows up nuke plant | The Sun
UKRAINE has launched disaster drills amid mounting fears Vladimir Putin plans to blow up a Russian-occupied nuclear plant.
Hazmat-clad troops have been spraying potential fall-out victims in case of a nuclear emergency at and around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in the south of the country.
Ukraine has this month accused Russia this month of planning a "terrorist" attack at the plant involving the release of radiation, though the Kremlin has denied this.
Yuriy Malashko, governor of the Zaporizhzhia region which includes the plant, has now revealed drills have begun in the main city and a nearby district.
TV footage showed rescuers, wearing yellow and white protective gear and gas masks, using dosimeters to check passenger cars and trucks for radiation levels.
They were also seen cleaning wheels before vehicles underwent additional decontamination at specialised washing points, while a man on a stretcher was brought into a medical tent as sirens blared.
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One resident being checked for radiation, 45-year-old Tetyana, said: "Of course it is scary.
"I fear for my family, my child. What do we do? It is very scary."
Similar exercises have started in the neighbouring Kherson region, local governor Oleksander Prokudin said.
He urged residents to remain calm, on the Telegram messaging app.
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Mr Prokudin said: "The purpose of the event is to co-ordinate the actions of all services in case of a real threat of an emergency situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant."
He also told how officials and civil defence forces were working jointly on scenarios that could follow a nuclear disaster, and on how to inform and evacuate people living nearby, while testing alert systems.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, sits near the city of Enerhodar in southern Ukraine.
The plant has been occupied by Russia since early March last year, shortly after Moscow's full-scale invasion.
Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the international community this month to put pressure on Russia to end its occupation of the plant and guarantee nuclear safety.
Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of shelling the vast complex, with both sides complaining of "nuclear terrorism."
Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, suffered the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986 when clouds of radioactive material spread across much of Europe after an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
The latest alerts come amid continuing Russian strikes on Ukraine, including an attack on a restaurant in the eastern city of Kramatorsk which killed at least ten people including 14-year-old twin sisters.
The missile strike comes only days after Putin admitted Russia was on the brink of civil war during a botched mutiny by the Wagner mercenary military group.
He blamed Ukraine partially for the staged coup, saying Zelensky and it's "Western patrons" wanted "Russian soldiers to kill each other, to kill military personnel and civilians, so that in the end Russia would lose, and our society would split, choke in bloody civil strife".
The 70-year-old despot addressed a carefully selected crowd of his generals and soldiers in the Kremlin's sealed-off Cathedral Square in Moscow on Tuesday.
He insisted the rebel mercenaries "never had the support" of the people – despite pictures showing the Wagner troops being met by cheering crowds in Rostov.
"You have stopped a civil war," said Putin.
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Vlad was speaking as the war of words continues between the Kremlin and Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin – who attempted to march on Moscow last Saturday.
Russian officials have said Priogzhin is free to go as he faces exile in Belarus, but in a firey statement on Monday night the warlord once again attacked Russia's leadership over the war in Ukraine.
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