Russian soldiers have been accused of ‘nuclear terrorism‘ for stealing radioactive items from Chernobyl, as ‘souvenirs’, as per a Facebook post by the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management. 

The agency continued that troops looted and destroyed two laboratories located in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, which are used to study radiation influence, substance characteristics, as well as other radioactive uses. 

It further claimed Russian forces entered a repository where radiation sources were ionized in a laboratory. The post blamed the Russians for stealing and damaging “133 sources with a total activity of about seven million becquerels”. This is equivalent to 1,534 pounds of radioactive waste, containing gamma and beta radiation. 

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Further, the agency concluded, “Even a small portion of this activity is deadly dangerous when unprofessional and uncontrollable behaviour with it”. 

With the whereabouts of these items unknown, there is a possibility that they’ve been kept elsewhere in the exclusion zone but the agency says this would pose a risk to staff members. 

Their Facebook post details “If radioactive materials were left in the exclusion zone, ‘discarded,’ this is a risk for staff, which further emphasizes the importance of immediate recovery of radiation-dosimetric studies and the removal of these highly active sources in specialties not a storage unit. After checking for the absence of measurements and the availability of equipment, this activity will be immediately restored”. 

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However, it is the agency’s belief that soldiers took items as “souvenirs”. They’ve highlighted the dangers, saying “In the case of carrying such a souvenir with you for 2 weeks, radiation burns are guaranteed and radiation diseases and non-reversible processes in the body begin”. 

It went on to suggest that these Russians should get the Darwin Award – which is a tongue-in-cheek honour presented to those whose contribution to human evolution includes accidentally killing or sterilizing themselves.