Home › Politics › What Kyiv demanded over Chernobyl on 30 March 2022
What Kyiv demanded over Chernobyl on 30 March 2022
Summary
A look back at the Ukrainian government's call for Russian troops to leave the Chernobyl zone, and at the grim claim about abducted mayors that preceded it.
What did Kyiv want from Russia in and around Chernobyl on 30 March 2022? Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk called on Russia to withdraw from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and for Russian troops occupying the former nuclear plant to pull out.
The demand concerned ground that Russian forces had held since the first day of the invasion. According to later accounts, they entered from neighbouring Belarus on 24 February and had seized the entire area of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant by the end of that day. By 7 March, it had been reported that around 300 people were trapped at the plant and unable to leave since its capture.
A grim claim two days earlier
The call came shortly after another troubling statement. On 28 March 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that some of the mayors abducted by invading Russian forces had been found dead.
What followed
The situation at Chernobyl changed soon afterwards. On 31 March 2022, a day after Vereshchuk's appeal, it was reported that most of the Russian troops occupying the area had withdrawn, as the Russian military abandoned the Kyiv offensive to focus on operations in eastern Ukraine.
Seen from the vantage point of 30 March, the appeal was therefore made on the eve of a pullback that was reported the following day.
