Chernobyl Worker Recalls 600-Hour Shift Under Russian Occupation

Kirdey: Nuclear engineer Liudmyla Kozak was part-way through a 12-hour overnight shift at the defunct Chernobyl plant when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and workers heard loud explosions from the edge of the so-called exclusion zone around the site. As military planes zipped overhead and the sound of fighting grew nearer, Kozak and her colleagues realised that the next shift of workers would not arrive to relieve them as scheduled that morning. By mid-afternoon, "we saw on our monitors that some uninvited guests were creeping in," Kozak, 45, told Reuters in Slavutych, a town near the Belarusian border where Chernobyl staff live. The workers were about to witness the most dramatic events at the plant since the 1986 nuclear disaster, whose 36-year anniversary was marked by a vigil in Slavutych on Tuesday. After battling Ukrainian forces around the still-radioactive plant, Russian troops had seized control of its territory by the evening of the first day of the invasion - part of Moscow's land, sea and air assault on Ukraine that was the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.

Kirdey: Nuclear engineer Liudmyla Kozak was part-way through a 12-hour overnight shift at the defunct Chernobyl plant when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and workers heard loud explosions from the edge of the so-called exclusion zone around the site. As military planes zipped overhead and the sound of fighting grew nearer, Kozak and her colleagues realised that the next shift of workers would not arrive to relieve them as scheduled that morning. By mid-afternoon, "we saw on our monitors that some uninvited guests were creeping in," Kozak, 45, told Reuters in Slavutych, a town near the Belarusian border where Chernobyl staff live. The workers were about to witness the most dramatic events at the plant since the 1986 nuclear disaster, whose 36-year anniversary was marked by a vigil in Slavutych on Tuesday. After battling Ukrainian forces around the still-radioactive plant, Russian troops had seized control of its territory by the evening of the first day of the invasion - part of Moscow's land, sea and air assault on Ukraine that was the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.Kirdey: Nuclear engineer Liudmyla Kozak was part-way through a 12-hour overnight shift at the defunct Chernobyl plant when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and workers heard loud explosions from the edge of the so-called exclusion zone around the site. As military planes zipped overhead and the sound of fighting grew nearer, Kozak and her colleagues realised that the next shift of workers would not arrive to relieve them as scheduled that morning. By mid-afternoon, "we saw on our monitors that some uninvited guests were creeping in," Kozak, 45, told Reuters in Slavutych, a town near the Belarusian border where Chernobyl staff live. The workers were about to witness the most dramatic events at the plant since the 1986 nuclear disaster, whose 36-year anniversary was marked by a vigil in Slavutych on Tuesday. After battling Ukrainian forces around the still-radioactive plant, Russian troops had seized control of its territory by the evening of the first day of the invasion - part of Moscow's land, sea and air assault on Ukraine that was the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.Kirdey: Nuclear engineer Liudmyla Kozak was part-way through a 12-hour overnight shift at the defunct Chernobyl plant when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and workers heard loud explosions from the edge of the so-called exclusion zone around the site. As military planes zipped overhead and the sound of fighting grew nearer, Kozak and her colleagues realised that the next shift of workers would not arrive to relieve them as scheduled that morning. By mid-afternoon, "we saw on our monitors that some uninvited guests were creeping in," Kozak, 45, told Reuters in Slavutych, a town near the Belarusian border where Chernobyl staff live. The workers were about to witness the most dramatic events at the plant since the 1986 nuclear disaster, whose 36-year anniversary was marked by a vigil in Slavutych on Tuesday. After battling Ukrainian forces around the still-radioactive plant, Russian troops had seized control of its territory by the evening of the first day of the invasion - part of Moscow's land, sea and air assault on Ukraine that was the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.Kirdey: Nuclear engineer Liudmyla Kozak was part-way through a 12-hour overnight shift at the defunct Chernobyl plant when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and workers heard loud explosions from the edge of the so-called exclusion zone around the site. As military planes zipped overhead and the sound of fighting grew nearer, Kozak and her colleagues realised that the next shift of workers would not arrive to relieve them as scheduled that morning. By mid-afternoon, "we saw on our monitors that some uninvited guests were creeping in," Kozak, 45, told Reuters in Slavutych, a town near the Belarusian border where Chernobyl staff live. The workers were about to witness the most dramatic events at the plant since the 1986 nuclear disaster, whose 36-year anniversary was marked by a vigil in Slavutych on Tuesday. After battling Ukrainian forces around the still-radioactive plant, Russian troops had seized control of its territory by the evening of the first day of the invasion - part of Moscow's land, sea and air assault on Ukraine that was the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.Kirdey: Nuclear engineer Liudmyla Kozak was part-way through a 12-hour overnight shift at the defunct Chernobyl plant when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and workers heard loud explosions from the edge of the so-called exclusion zone around the site. As military planes zipped overhead and the sound of fighting grew nearer, Kozak and her colleagues realised that the next shift of workers would not arrive to relieve them as scheduled that morning. By mid-afternoon, "we saw on our monitors that some uninvited guests were creeping in," Kozak, 45, told Reuters in Slavutych, a town near the Belarusian border where Chernobyl staff live. The workers were about to witness the most dramatic events at the plant since the 1986 nuclear disaster, whose 36-year anniversary was marked by a vigil in Slavutych on Tuesday. After battling Ukrainian forces around the still-radioactive plant, Russian troops had seized control of its territory by the evening of the first day of the invasion - part of Moscow's land, sea and air assault on Ukraine that was the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.Kirdey: Nuclear engineer Liudmyla Kozak was part-way through a 12-hour overnight shift at the defunct Chernobyl plant when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and workers heard loud explosions from the edge of the so-called exclusion zone around the site. As military planes zipped overhead and the sound of fighting grew nearer, Kozak and her colleagues realised that the next shift of workers would not arrive to relieve them as scheduled that morning. By mid-afternoon, "we saw on our monitors that some uninvited guests were creeping in," Kozak, 45, told Reuters in Slavutych, a town near the Belarusian border where Chernobyl staff live. The workers were about to witness the most dramatic events at the plant since the 1986 nuclear disaster, whose 36-year anniversary was marked by a vigil in Slavutych on Tuesday. After battling Ukrainian forces around the still-radioactive plant, Russian troops had seized control of its territory by the evening of the first day of the invasion - part of Moscow's land, sea and air assault on Ukraine that was the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.Kirdey: Nuclear engineer Liudmyla Kozak was part-way through a 12-hour overnight shift at the defunct Chernobyl plant when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and workers heard loud explosions from the edge of the so-called exclusion zone around the site. As military planes zipped overhead and the sound of fighting grew nearer, Kozak and her colleagues realised that the next shift of workers would not arrive to relieve them as scheduled that morning. By mid-afternoon, "we saw on our monitors that some uninvited guests were creeping in," Kozak, 45, told Reuters in Slavutych, a town near the Belarusian border where Chernobyl staff live. The workers were about to witness the most dramatic events at the plant since the 1986 nuclear disaster, whose 36-year anniversary was marked by a vigil in Slavutych on Tuesday. After battling Ukrainian forces around the still-radioactive plant, Russian troops had seized control of its territory by the evening of the first day of the invasion - part of Moscow's land, sea and air assault on Ukraine that was the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.Kirdey: Nuclear engineer Liudmyla Kozak was part-way through a 12-hour overnight shift at the defunct Chernobyl plant when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and workers heard loud explosions from the edge of the so-called exclusion zone around the site. As military planes zipped overhead and the sound of fighting grew nearer, Kozak and her colleagues realised that the next shift of workers would not arrive to relieve them as scheduled that morning. By mid-afternoon, "we saw on our monitors that some uninvited guests were creeping in," Kozak, 45, told Reuters in Slavutych, a town near the Belarusian border where Chernobyl staff live. The workers were about to witness the most dramatic events at the plant since the 1986 nuclear disaster, whose 36-year anniversary was marked by a vigil in Slavutych on Tuesday. After battling Ukrainian forces around the still-radioactive plant, Russian troops had seized control of its territory by the evening of the first day of the invasion - part of Moscow's land, sea and air assault on Ukraine that was the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.Kirdey: Nuclear engineer Liudmyla Kozak was part-way through a 12-hour overnight shift at the defunct Chernobyl plant when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and workers heard loud explosions from the edge of the so-called exclusion zone around the site. As military planes zipped overhead and the sound of fighting grew nearer, Kozak and her colleagues realised that the next shift of workers would not arrive to relieve them as scheduled that morning. By mid-afternoon, "we saw on our monitors that some uninvited guests were creeping in," Kozak, 45, told Reuters in Slavutych, a town near the Belarusian border where Chernobyl staff live. The workers were about to witness the most dramatic events at the plant since the 1986 nuclear disaster, whose 36-year anniversary was marked by a vigil in Slavutych on Tuesday. After battling Ukrainian forces around the still-radioactive plant, Russian troops had seized control of its territory by the evening of the first day of the invasion - part of Moscow's land, sea and air assault on Ukraine that was the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.Kirdey: Nuclear engineer Liudmyla Kozak was part-way through a 12-hour overnight shift at the defunct Chernobyl plant when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and workers heard loud explosions from the edge of the so-called exclusion zone around the site. As military planes zipped overhead and the sound of fighting grew nearer, Kozak and her colleagues realised that the next shift of workers would not arrive to relieve them as scheduled that morning. By mid-afternoon, "we saw on our monitors that some uninvited guests were creeping in," Kozak, 45, told Reuters in Slavutych, a town near the Belarusian border where Chernobyl staff live. The workers were about to witness the most dramatic events at the plant since the 1986 nuclear disaster, whose 36-year anniversary was marked by a vigil