Chornobyl satellite town under siege

The State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone management is reporting that the Chornobyl nuclear power plant satellite city of Slavutych is under attack. “Right now the enemy is trying to take the city of Slavutych by storm. Blockbuster shelling is underway,” says the agency’s Facebook page. Checkpoints are under heavy artillery fire.

The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine is also reporting that this could negatively affect safety once again at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant because “Personnel working at the Chornobyl NPP facilities, as well as at facilities and enterprises located in the Exclusion Zone live in Slavutych.”

The agency says that “The current situation endangers the lives and health of Chornobyl NPP employees and their families, creates significant psychological and moral pressure on operational personnel ensuring nuclear and radiation safety of the Chornobyl NPP facilities, and makes it impossible to ensure the personnel rotation.”

(Photo: Residential area of Slavutych/IAEA Imagebank/Wikimedia Commons)