The Chernobyl nuclear disaster 37 years ago is remembered in Ukraine. Another event is even more present for the employees of the decommissioned nuclear power plant: the occupation of the nuclear ruins by the Russian army.
Lyudmilla Kozak bends over a model of the Chernobyl nuclear facility in the Slavutych City Museum. “I work here,” says the brown-haired engineer, pointing to one of the buildings. The 45-year-old has been working in the decommissioned nuclear power plant for 20 years and lets her gaze wander through the small Chernobyl exhibition.
Engineer Lyudmilla Kozak visits the Chernobyl exhibition in Slavutych City Museum.
On the museum wall hangs a large black and white photo of the ruins of Block 4, which exploded on April 26, 1986. It was the worst possible accident in the civil use of nuclear power: the super meltdown.
The remaining highly radioactive debris is under a 35,000-ton concrete shell. This sarcophagus is designed to last 100 years, with around 400,000 cubic meters of molten fuel rods and building material lurking underneath. However, it is still unclear what will happen to the radioactive nuclear waste.
Exhibits of the Chernobyl exhibition.
Almost every employee under Russian supervision
The approximately 25,000-inhabitant Slawutytsch is about 70 kilometers away and was built after the Chernobyl disaster for employees of the damaged nuclear power plant. Many clocks in the city are set to 1:23 a.m. At that time, the man-made catastrophe occurred. The plant was shut down in 2000 and dismantling will probably take at least four decades.
The clock stands still. On April 26, 1986 at 1:23 am the Chernobyl disaster happened.
On February 24, 2022, Russian troops then occupied the nuclear site around 150 kilometers north of Kiev, near the border with Belarus. Lyudmilla Kosak was on the shift that day. Like all of them, it was strictly controlled by members of the Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom and the Russian army. “Almost every employee was supervised by a Russian soldier. They controlled when and where I went, why I did what and who I spoke to,” she says.
A selfie by Lyudmilla Kosak and colleagues from March 1st, 2022. during the Russian occupation of the nuclear ruins.
All safety regulations ignored
Lyudmilla Kozak was horrified to see how the Russian army’s occupiers disregarded all safety regulations around the decommissioned Chernobyl plant: They mined part of the site and partly destroyed laboratories in which radioactive waste was examined.
They also dug trenches in the exclusion zone, in the so-called red forest, filled sandbags for fortifications with material from the site and breathed in everything. “Every Russian soldier takes a piece of Chernobyl home with him. Dead or alive,” said Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko at the time.
The occupiers destroyed or took away more than 300 vehicles. After the withdrawal at the end of March 2022, hundreds of vehicles, computers, radiation dosimeters, software or firefighting equipment were missing. The system that monitors radioactivity in the 30-kilometer exclusion zone was also not running during the occupation. The facility was without power for a few days.
Abandoned battlefields built by Russian troops in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
“Whatever you said, they were aggressive”
For safety engineer Kosak it was the purest nightmare. In the first few days, you could have addressed things like where you weren’t allowed to dig, but that was becoming increasingly difficult: “Whatever you said, the Russians were aggressive. They wanted to get rid of us, but at the same time they needed us because they had to monitor the system.”
According to Kosak, nothing happened to the specialists, but they had to work constantly. The exhausted team slept on tables or benches, drew up their own shift schedule and took turns doing the strenuous work every three hours – even at night. For the first few days they were still able to telephone their concerned relatives, but then no longer.
Slogged to the point of total exhaustion. An employee sleeps on an office desk (photo from 2022).
Children think their father is in the military
On a park bench in Slavutych, Angelina talks about her occupation trauma: Her husband was one of almost 170 Ukrainian national guards guarding Chernobyl on February 24, 2022. He was taken into Russian captivity. The serious woman had the last direct contact more than a year ago.
Since then she has only had a little information from released fellow prisoners: “One said he saw my husband through a gap in the prison cell. I am very grateful for such information. No matter how small it may be, it is very important.”
Angelina’s husband guarded Chernobyl on February 24, 2022. He was kidnapped into Russian captivity.
Her three children think their father is in the army, because Angelina wants to spare them the almost unbearable thought of the ordeal of Russian captivity. In an organization she co-founded, Angelina campaigns for the release of prisoners and health examinations for those released.
The Pope, the United Nations, the International Red Cross, Ukrainian authorities – she turned to all of them. And the German Federal Minister of Economics, Robert Habeck, also promised to help during his visit to Slavutych at the beginning of April. Every exchange of prisoners is like a breath of fresh air, says Angelina – and hopes that she will continue. “What demands can we have? To bring our loved ones home as soon as possible. That’s all we want,” she says.
Colleagues can be exchanged
Safety engineer Kosak escaped the Russian occupation of Chernobyl without any physical damage. After 600 long hours, she was replaced by courageous colleagues who volunteered to be exchanged for work in Chernobyl. In order to get to Ukrainian-controlled territory, Kosak had to walk through a forest full of soldiers and snipers, and a boat finally brought them to safety. “To be honest, it was very scary,” she recalls.
To this day, Lyudmilla Kozak is filled with intense feelings and deep gratitude that colleagues exchanged positions for her and others and exchanged their freedom for Russian occupation. When she talks about it, tears shimmer in her eyes: “We were actually there by accident, but they volunteered for us in Russian captivity.”