That makes me think. What is the status of chernobyl in the war. Do all soldiers just ignore it and go around? Or did some fighting happen there?
The exclusion zone is not as dangerous as it once was and you can safely cross it. Tourists go in it.
it’s pretty far from the fighting and I doubt Russia spent much time there at the beginning of the war when they had positions there because it’s flanked by a huge lake on the east which already serves as natural defenses.
Russia moved into the area where the control center for the site is (the still crewed one) in the first month but there was fighting with the Ukrainians. They entered into an agreement to jointly run it with the Ukrainian troops and personnel present. Russia just mainly wants to avoid NATO/Ukraine Nazis staging a false flag there (blowing it up, spreading radiation, whatever) and blaming them.
Adding to CriticalResist8 post, Russian Army have inherited the top equipment, specialists and procedures for operating in radiated battlefield from USSR.
Hell even the polish army engineer corps are considered among the top in NATO due to what they learned in Warsaw Pact about that.
