Chernobyl NPP personnel “exhausted” as aggressors holding them hostage for 10 days - mayor

Yuriy Fomichev, Mayor of Slavutych, a satellite town where most NPP workers live, spoke about this with the UA:PBC public broadcaster, Ukrinform reports.

"We can't replace people, they have been working their shift for 10 days already. They divided into two groups, replacing each other, but they are exhausted – mentally, physically, and emotionally," Fomichev said.

He added that personnel’s food rations are limited, as well as the required medication.

According to the mayor, the exhaustion of staff is a threat to the safe operation of the nuclear facility.

 “We’ve already said that the staff must work in a stable manner. Also, all vehicles passing through the Chornobyl zone carry radioactive dust on their wheels across the territory of Ukraine, further toward Kyiv, and this hasn’t stopped for days,” the mayor said.

He noted that there is limited communication with "those people" (Russians - ed.) and that there is no safe "green corridor" agreed to replace the entire shift at the NPP.

"In addition, vibration due to the movement of military hardware or, God forbid, hostilities, if they break out, could also affect the 4th power unit, whose structures are unstable. I’m talking about the one that was damaged in the 1986 accident," Fomichev said.

According to Fomichev, the collapse of unstable structures could lead to the release of large amounts of radioactive dust.

The Slavutych mayor noted that there were previously no such precedents anywhere in the world where a nuclear station would be seized by an adversary force.

As reported, the Russian military advanced from Belarus and gained control of the Chernobyl NPP on February 24, the first day of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As reported, on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine and launched a large-scale invasion. Russian troops are shelling and destroying infrastructure, massively shelling residential areas across Ukrainian cities and towns, using artillery, MLR systems, and ballistic missiles.

Martial law was imposed in the country and general mobilization was announced.

Ukraine has officially filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation in the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague.