{"id":1034,"date":"2026-06-11T08:35:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T08:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/1034\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T08:35:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T08:35:06","slug":"ukraine-beefs-up-defences-in-chornobyl-exclusion-zone-near-border-with-belarus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/1034\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine beefs up defences in Chornobyl exclusion zone, near border with Belarus"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Nestor, a Ukrainian infantryman, patrols terrain near a disused Soviet-era radar station within the Chornobyl exclusion zone on Wednesday.Olga Ivashchenko\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

There are 40 years\u2019 worth of scars in and around the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. Entire cities have been deserted since the 1986 explosion here, and the surrounding terrain is torn up with trenches dug by the invading Russian army as it passed through in 2022.<\/p>\n

More than four years later, it\u2019s the Ukrainian military\u2019s turn to build new fortifications in the Chornobyl exclusion zone, amid a series of warnings from President Volodymyr Zelensky that neighbouring Belarus could soon enter the war on Russia\u2019s side. The Belarusian border is just 12 kilometres from Chornobyl and Reactor No. 4, the epicentre of the world\u2019s worst nuclear catastrophe. <\/p>\n

Fears that Belarus could join the war have persisted since early in the invasion, as have concerns that new radiation could be released by fighting near the disused power plant.<\/p>\n

Those worries were reignited when Mr. Zelensky revealed that his country\u2019s intelligence services had detected the construction of new roads and artillery positions on the Belarusian side of the 1,000-kilometre-long border between the two countries. \u201cRussia may once again attempt to drag Belarus into its war,\u201d he warned in an April 17 social media post.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainians charged with patrolling the zone around the enclosed remains of the power plant \u2013 which is still in the process of being decommissioned \u2013 won\u2019t comment on how many additional troops have been deployed to the northern border to counter the potential threat. But freshly dug trenches, tank positions and anti-drone netting were visible as The Globe and Mail drove through parts of the region, escorted by a Ukrainian military press officer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are always ready for any practical threat \u2212 we are training for every scenario that might unfold,\u201d said Nestor, the code name of a 30-year-old infantryman serving in the 28th Chornobyl Regiment. Ukrainian soldiers are barred from giving their real names when speaking with media.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday he was on a foot patrol near a Soviet-era radar station, 150 metres tall, that stands disused within the exclusion zone.<\/p>\n

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Karen, a drone operator with the 28th Chornobyl Regiment, works with Nestor in the exclusion zone near the abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine.Olga Ivashchenko\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Tensions between Ukraine and Belarus have spiked since Mr. Zelensky went public with the intelligence suggesting Belarus may be preparing to join the war. <\/p>\n

He directly warned Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko about the potential consequences of such a decision. In an apparent reference to a January operation that saw the U.S. military forcibly remove Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro from power, Mr. Zelensky wrote on April 17 that \u201crecent events in Venezuela should deter the Belarusian leadership from making mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He posted again about the threat of Belarus joining the war on May 21, warning that Ukraine may need to act \u201cpreventively\u201d against Mr. Lukashenko\u2019s regime. Five days later, Robert Brovdi, the commander of Ukraine\u2019s drone forces, said he had a list of the first 500 targets to strike in Belarus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey may have identified 500 targets \u2026 we have one very serious target, with precise coordinates, and it is located not far from Belarus,\u201d Mr. Lukashenko retorted in an apparent reference to Mr. Zelensky\u2019s office in Kyiv.<\/p>\n

Mr. Lukashenko has publicly ruled out sending Belarusian forces to join the invasion \u2013 saying his country\u2019s soldiers would not become \u201ccannon fodder\u201d in Russia\u2019s war \u2013 while at the same time reaffirming his alliance with Moscow. The two countries recently completed joint military exercises that involved the simulated use of tactical nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

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The Belarusian army \u2013 which has an estimated 48,000 active troops \u2013 is small compared with the Ukrainian army\u2019s 800,000 enlisted men, while Russia has more than two million. Even if Belarus were to formally remain on the sidelines, Russia could involve the country by again using its territory to launch a thrust toward Kyiv, as it did at the start of the war.<\/p>\n

The Chornobyl zone was seized by Russian troops on Feb. 24, 2022, the first day of the invasion, taking some 300 staff of the nuclear power plant hostage and forcing them to continue working. The Russians withdrew five weeks later after failing to seize the capital, 90 kilometres to the south.<\/p>\n

When inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency re-entered the plant, they discovered the Russians had damaged US$135-million worth of computers, radiation dosimeters and other equipment before withdrawing.<\/p>\n

The Chornobyl disaster evokes strong feelings on both sides of the Ukraine-Belarus border. Because the wind was blowing north at the time of the explosion on April 26, 1986, many of the thousands who later developed cancers connected to the disaster were Belarusian.<\/p>\n

Forty years on from nuclear disaster, Chornobyl liquidators return<\/a><\/p>\n

While Reactor No. 4 is now enclosed in a steel containment structure that houses the concrete sarcophagus built in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, Russian drone attacks have rekindled worries about another radiation leak.<\/p>\n

A February, 2025, strike by an Iranian-designed Shahed drone damaged the containment structure, prompting a warning from the IAEA that repairs to the shelter were \u201cessential.\u201d On Sunday, another drone struck a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel. Again, there was no detected spike in radiation levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see that Russia is increasing the number of drones they use against us. They are looking for weaknesses on our side,\u201d said Karen, the code name of a 31-year-old drone operator with the 28th Chornobyl Regiment.<\/p>\n

As he spoke, the faint buzz of a drone could be heard in the distance. Karen, who pilots interceptor drones that hunt down Shaheds and shoot them out of the sky, said even he couldn\u2019t identify what kind of unmanned vehicle was overhead. \u201cThere is such a zoo of drones in the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said most of the Russian drones now travel right along the border between Ukraine and Belarus, rather than flying through Belarusian territory, after a string of incidents earlier this year in which Russian drones were shot down by Belarusian air defences.<\/p>\n

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Adelina Zirka, press officer for the 28th Chornobyl Regiment, said her proximity to the nuclear site worries her family and friends.Olga Ivashchenko\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Despite the escalating tensions, the possibility of Belarus directly joining the war is viewed as remote. \u201cMilitary experts and monitoring groups insist there are no indications that Belarus is preparing for a repeat invasion of Ukraine,\u201d reads a June 2 report published by the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, a Berlin-based think tank. \u201cBut the statements and warning signs are becoming too numerous to be dismissed entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adelina Zirka, the press officer for the 28th Chornobyl Regiment, said her family and friends are less concerned about the threat from Belarus than the fact she\u2019s stationed so close to the site of a nuclear disaster.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course they\u2019re worried \u2212 I have a three-year-old daughter,\u201d she said, standing in the shadow of the massive Soviet-built radar. \u201cBut what can you do?\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The exclusion zone near Pripyat, close to the Belarus border.Olga Ivashchenko\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Nestor, a Ukrainian infantryman, patrols terrain near a disused Soviet-era radar station within…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[469,454,470,290,444,471,218,443,460,461,457,445,442,466,467,465,459,452,482,446,447,379,455,456,449,472,450,477,478,480,475,479,473,476,448,463,464,62,462,474,453,109,468,458,451,64,481],"class_list":["post-1034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}