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Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by bayesian_horse on Thursday February 24, 2022 @02:59PM (#30459475)
I think they seized it because they need the general area to move their troops. In that case they can't tolerate Ukrainian troops there, but somebody has to be in control and responsible for this site to ensure, among other things, no terrorists make off with radioactive material.

I'm totally condemning the Russian actions, but in this particular case they may be acting somewhat responsibly. Unlike with the bombing of civilians or the whole damn war in the first place!

Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by drekipus on Thursday February 24, 2022 @04:25PM (#30460523)
> Unlike with the bombing of civilians or the whole damn war in the first place!

Has this happened? Ukrainian civilians bombed?

Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by toyg on Thursday February 24, 2022 @05:27PM (#30461196)
Never believe anybody who says attacks are "surgical" or "limited to strategic objectives" - bombs and shrapnels don't look at documents. War is war, civilian casualties are always inevitable. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to keep their numbers down, of course - in fact, it means war should never be waged, because innocents will always be caught in it.
Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by herpderperator on Thursday February 24, 2022 @05:37PM (#30461308)
Yes. A cyclist can be seen going about their life before a bomb lands in front of them. The proximity would have sent shrapnel directly into them. They did not survive. It is extremely sad and awful to watch unfold. Warning: the second video contains gore. https://twitter.com/realistqx1/status/1496757503195029508 and https://twitter.com/zyundex/status/1496735074720563203
Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by sofixa on Thursday February 24, 2022 @04:48PM (#30460777)
Yep, multiple cities, including Kyiv, Mariupol, Odessa, Lviv were bombed, and there's videos out there of civilian buildings destroyed.
Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by dragontamer on Thursday February 24, 2022 @04:41PM (#30460703)
Some Ukrainian Hospitals have been struck by artillery. No one knows if it was on purpose or not, but either way that's pretty bad since the world is still suffering from the COVID19 pandemic.
Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by anothernewdude on Thursday February 24, 2022 @05:15PM (#30461044)
The Russian Hospital seeking missiles are famous since Syria.
Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by matmatmatmat on Thursday February 24, 2022 @04:34PM (#30460618)
Whether deliberately or not, yes.
Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by MertsA on Friday February 25, 2022 @08:15PM (#30474424)
>no terrorists make off with radioactive material.

The reactors that aren't infamous have already had all fuel removed. The one that was scattered all over the countryside has plenty of highly radioactive debris but you can't realistically pull out material for a dirty bomb. Terrorists would have better luck stealing cobalt 60 sources and spreading that through a city than trying to break into the new safe confinement, break into the sarcophagus, find a suitably large amount of highly radioactive material, somehow break it into pieces and truck it out of the area, etc.

Terrorists aren't going to try to use the war as cover to sneak into Chernobyl regardless of Russian troop presence.

Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by rad_gruchalski on Thursday February 24, 2022 @05:36PM (#30461283)
> but somebody has to be in control and responsible for this site to ensure, among other things, no terrorists make off with radioactive material

Please… Russians will just use it for their propaganda as a support to the claim that Ukraine was working on nuclear weapons.

Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by bragr on Thursday February 24, 2022 @06:23PM (#30461732)
That would be an awkward claim considering Ukraine _had_ nuclear weapons and gave them up to Russia in the 90s for guarantees about Ukraine's territorial integrity. Obviously that didn't work so well for Ukraine now
Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by rad_gruchalski on Friday February 25, 2022 @03:01AM (#30464752)
Awkward? That’s what Putin said before invasion. WMD and nuclear weapons.
Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by cypherpunks01 on Thursday February 24, 2022 @06:50PM (#30461991)
I believe they were destroyed, not given over to Russia?
Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by Thorrez on Friday February 25, 2022 @03:41AM (#30465001)
Hmm, various websites disagree. I would guess some were given to Russia and some were destroyed with the uranium being kept for other purposes.

Gave to Russia:

> Ukraine handed all its nuclear weapons to Russia

https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraines-nuclear-lesson-with...

> Ukraine have acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as non-nuclear states and are now transferring Soviet missiles and warheads to Russia for dismantlement on a strict schedule.

https://www.stimson.org/1995/politics-nuclear-renunciation-c...

>The former Soviet Republics where nuclear weapons had been based, namely Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, transferred those weapons to Russia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_the_Non-Proliferatio...

> effectively abandoning their nuclear arsenal to Russia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Securit...

> In May 1996, Ukraine saw the last of its nuclear arms transported back to Russia.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/05/science/ukraine-nuclear-w...

> Ukraine transferred its last 40 nuclear warheads to Russia

> Most tactical nuclear weapons were transferred from Ukraine to Russia.

https://www.rferl.org/a/the-destruction-of-ukraines-nuclear-...

> All nuclear weapons were removed to Russia

https://www.nti.org/countries/ukraine/

Destroyed:

> Ukraine gave up a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons left over by the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, and used the fuel from its blended-down warheads to drive its nuclear power plants.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/us/politics/putin-ukraine...

> In 1994 Ukraine agreed to destroy the weapons

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_and_Ukraine

> Ukrainian workers cut an air-to-ground X-22 cruise missile into pieces

https://www.rferl.org/a/the-destruction-of-ukraines-nuclear-...

> they had to destroy all of their nuclear weapons.

https://historyofyesterday.com/did-ukraine-actually-get-rid-...

Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by csee on Thursday February 24, 2022 @10:59PM (#30463566)
They weren't activated nukes fyi
[dead]
Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by bjtitus on Thursday February 24, 2022 @03:08PM (#30459609)
Is any part of Chernobyl still in operation? It seems like everything was shut down by 2000 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_Nuclear_Power_Plant).
Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by odiroot on Thursday February 24, 2022 @03:20PM (#30459744)
I stand corrected then!
Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by garaetjjte on Thursday February 24, 2022 @03:07PM (#30459593)
Chernobyl power plant isn't operational since 2000.
Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by rob74 on Thursday February 24, 2022 @06:32PM (#30461817)
Which still means that it operated for 14 years after the accident. Must have been a very "special" workplace for the engineers involved...
Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by smsm42 on Thursday February 24, 2022 @03:07PM (#30459583)
The station has been shut down since 2000. There's no power supply there.
Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by Arrath on Thursday February 24, 2022 @04:03PM (#30460242)
Could it still be an important part of the distribution network? Lines, substations, etc.
Re:Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces by epolanski on Thursday February 24, 2022 @05:30PM (#30461232)
It's simply the shortest and simplest path from Belarus to Kiev. It has strategic military value.