Thursday, February 24, 2022

Why would Russia want to seize Chernobyl?

If, like me, you were confused as to why Russia would want to occupy the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant on their very first day of invading Ukraine.

Well, it seems that Russia probably has no nefarious plans to throw radioactive waste at Ukrainians, or anything of that nature. It turns out that Chernobyl is just ten miles from the Belarus border (think of Belarus as being just part of Russia, for all intents and purposes), and just 80 miles in a straight line from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. So, Chernobyl is a strategically-positioned location, especially as there is not even the barrier of the River Dnieper when Kyiv is approached from the north.

So, there you have it: location, location, location. Oh, and nuclear waste. The Russians really don't want disaffected Ukrainians stirring up all that contaminated soil and scattering it to the four winds (including ones that blow towards Russia). Although I suppose that that is still a rather grim possibility - a couple of well-placed missiles could do Russia (and Ukraine, and much of the world, for that matter) a lot of very long-term damage. Doesn't really bear thinking about, does it?

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