On the first day of the war, Russia captured the Chernobyl nuclear ruins north of Kyiv. According to research, it took the Kremlin troops just two hours, and the Ukrainian guards laid down their weapons without a fight. Traitors in their own ranks are said to be the reason for this.
Secret agents were apparently responsible for Russian troops quickly capturing the Chernobyl nuclear ruins in February. The Russian secret service FSB smuggled agents into Ukraine long before the invasion to establish contacts with officials and prepare the ground for a takeover, according to a Reuters investigation. "In addition to the external enemy, unfortunately we also have an internal one, and it is no less dangerous," says Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov. The network of secret agents was therefore only successful in isolated cases.
The nuclear ruins north of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv fell into Russian hands on the first day of the war. At the time, the Ukrainian government spoke of "bitter" fighting raging in Chernobyl. The Reuters journalists come to a different conclusion: 169 members of the Ukrainian National Guard were tasked with defending the ruins. They laid down their arms without a fight after less than two hours.
Accordingly, the rapid capture of Chernobyl was part of a blitzkrieg strategy that the Kremlin had relied on. A network of secret agents was supposed to collect information about the operational readiness of the Ukrainian armed forces across the country, bribe and corrupt them. The assumption was that they would give up quickly and that the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky would resign, flee or capitulate.
According to Security and Defense Secretary Danilov, by the time the war began, Russian agents had infiltrated Ukrainian defense and security agencies and the police. According to the research, Danilov did not want to name names, but stated that "such traitors must be neutralized".
According to the Reuters report, many Russian FSB agents are said to have worked in Chernobyl in particular. A special role fell to security chief Walentin Witer, who is in custody and is being investigated because he is said to have left his post. According to Reuters, Witers is also suspected of treason. Accordingly, he is said to have instructed the commander of the National Guard on the day of the Russian invasion not to put his people in danger: "Spare them."
According to the report, the Ukrainian judiciary is investigating whether the task of the national guard violated the law. The unit defended its actions, citing possible risks that fighting at Chernobyl could have caused.
Although the plan worked for the nuclear ruins, the Russian takeover of power in Kyiv failed. According to this, several secret agents are said to have exaggerated their influence in the Ukrainian government and in the Ukrainian security authorities in communication with Moscow. The Kremlin has relied on "clowns" and "self-portrayals," Reuters quotes an anonymous source close to the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine as saying.
Signs of an operational disaster for the Russian secret services were already evident in the early weeks of the war: in April it was reported that around 150 FSB agents had been fired and arrested.
