Russian troops got 'significant doses of radiation' after digging trenches around Chernobyl, Ukrainian power authority says

• Russian forces have started to withdraw from the Chernobyl plant on Thursday.
• Ukraine's nuclear agency said troops reportedly suffered from "significant doses of radiation."

Russian forces have begun to withdraw from the Chernobyl nuclear plant after reportedly suffering from "a significant doses of radiation," Ukraine's state nuclear agency said on Thursday.

Energoatom wrote on Telegram that Russian troops dug trenches in the highly radioactive Red Forest — within Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone — where they fell ill and decided to retreat to the Belarusian border.

Insider did not see independent evidence that soldiers had been affected from radioactive exposure, and the Ukrainian power authority did not disclose what symptoms the troops had that suggested this.

A small number of Russian troops will remain at the plant for now, Energoatom said.

Earlier on Thursday, a US defense official said Russian troops were beginning to leave the contaminated site of the world's worst nuclear disaster, a little over a month since they captured it shortly after President Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine.

After Russian forces captured the decommissioned plant, its Ukrainian workers were forced to remain on-site for weeks.

Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — the largest in Europe — was also captured by Russian forces, raising fears that a nuclear accident could occur if fighting took place near various nuclear plants.

Earlier in March, the International Atomic Energy Agency warned of an "unprecedented danger" caused by nearby military activity.

Thursday's Chernobyl withdraw comes after Russia's defense ministry claimed it would scale back assaults on the northern Ukrainian cities Kyiv and Chernihiv — both of which are not far from Chernobyl — amid fresh peace negotiations in Istanbul earlier this week.

Russia had previously said it would focus military attention on Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

The Pentagon approached Russia's claims with deep skepticism, and said Russian troop movements were likely "a repositioning, not a real withdrawal."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also pushed back against Russia's claims, warning on Wednesday of the potential for new Russian attacks in the eastern flank.

Translations by Oleksandr Vynogradov.