- New York area port prepares for possible US strike disruption
- Rodri 'irreplaceable' but Guardiola confident Man City will still compete
- Brook 'relieved' as maiden ODI hundred sets up first win as England captain
- Dior's arrows and Amazons as Saint Laurent revives its master
- Mbappe strikes again as Madrid hold off Alaves
- Nkunku hits Chelsea hat-trick, Man City edge into League Cup last 16
- Amnesty calls for commission to probe Kenya protest deaths
- Bolivian government rejects Morales ultimatum for cabinet reshuffle
- US Congress calls on Novo Nordisk to lower drug prices
- Stock markets advance on China stimulus
- Russia 'can only be forced into peace," Zelensky tells UN
- Hundred hero Brook keeps England alive in Australia ODI series
- Biden pleads for democracy in final UN address
- Brook's hundred sees England beat Australia in 3rd ODI
- Alarm grows as Israel and Hezbollah exchange intense fire
- NFL legend Favre reveals Parkinson's diagnosis
- Biden urges world to 'stop arming generals' in Sudan
- Defying experts, Trump vows tariff-driven US economic boom
- Stokes open to England white-ball return
- No peak oil demand 'on the horizon', phaseout a 'fantasy': OPEC
- Sri Lanka's new leftist leader dissolves parliament, calls snap polls
- England scrum-half Mitchell to see specialist on neck injury
- Under-pressure Masood to lead Pakistan in England Tests
- Storm Helene on track to hit Florida as major hurricane
- IOC should reinstate Russia as soon it obeys rules: Samaranch
- Dior unleashes arrows and Amazons at Paris Fashion Week
- San Siro loses 2027 Champions League final due to uncertain future
- Canada's Trudeau faces no-confidence vote
- AI research uncovers 300 ancient etchings in Peru's Nazca desert
- Brazil's Lula calls Security Council makeup 'unacceptable'
- Alarm grows as Israel launches new 'extensive' strikes on Lebanon
- Carey blasts Australia to 304-7 against England in 3rd ODI
- Biden warns against clinging to power in UN farewell
- Alarm grows as Israel launches new strikes on Lebanon
- Biden warns at UN against 'full-scale war' over Lebanon
- 'Monumental step' as Thai king signs same-sex marriage into law
- French lake still riddled with bombs 80 years after World War II
- Alberta Ferretti quits as creative director at brand she founded
- Two killed in Mexico as Hurricane John weakens to tropical storm
- Multiple arrests after US woman uses machine-assisted suicide in Switzerland
- Dubois will next fight Joshua or Usyk, 'whoever pays me the most'
- Stock markets surge on China stimulus
- Lopetegui ready to learn from mistakes as Liverpool loom in League Cup
- US Fed dissenter warns inflation risks remain 'prominent'
- UN chief warns Lebanon on 'brink' as world leaders gather
- Surprise start for Libbok as Etzebeth set for Springboks record
- Ten Hag says expanded schedules make injuries 'almost unavoidable'
- Liverpool boss Slot praises Alexander-Arnold's defensive work
- Barca coach backs Pena but will debate new goalkeeper signing
- UN says tens of thousands flee Lebanon strikes
'Very dangerous': Chernobyl marks anniversary amid war
The road toward Chernobyl is still littered with Russian soldiers' discarded ration boxes and occasional empty bullet shells in a subtle but harrowing warning of the invasion's terrible risk for the infamous nuclear site.
Tuesday marked the 36th anniversary of what is considered the worst ever nuclear disaster, and there was relief the hulking so-called sarcophagus covering the reactor's radioactivity remains was back under Ukrainian control.
Soldiers cradling their assault rifles watched over checkpoints -- including one with an effigy dressed in Russian fatigues and a gas mask -- that guard the way from Kyiv to the sprawling site near the border with Belarus.
Yet concerns are far from dissipated for atomic sites in Ukraine because Russia's invasion of its neighbour is grinding on.
Authorities even said Tuesday that missiles had flown low over a nuclear power station in a close call in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.
"They (Chernobyl staff) carried on their work, in spite (of) all of the difficulties... They got the situation stable, so to speak, in this sense the worst was of course avoided," UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told reporters upon his arrival at Chernobyl.
"We don't have peace yet, so we have to continue. The situation is not stable. We have to be on alert," he added, noting the invasion was "very, very dangerous".
The plant, which fell into Russian hands on the day Moscow's troops began their invasion in February, suffered a power and communications outage that stirred fears of a possible new calamity at the site.
Those worries stretch back to the events of April 26, 1986, when Chernobyl's number four reactor exploded, causing the world's worst nuclear accident which killed hundreds and spread radioactive contamination west across Europe.
- 'Ice Cream Chernobyl' -
The reactor number four building is now encased in a massive double sarcophagus to limit radioactive contamination, and an area spanning 30 kilometres (18.5 miles) around the plant is considered the "exclusion zone" that is essentially uninhabited, nuclear authorities say.
Rows of ageing and abandoned-looking apartment buildings dot the road into the site and yet some have bright curtains and plants in the windows, while a kiosk labelled "Chernobyl Tour Info" greets people on their way toward the plant.
The bullet hole-shattered glass of the nuclear-yellow painted hut bears the signs of the war launched on February 24 that has prompted international condemnation of Russia and backing for Ukraine.
In a sign from a more tourist-friendly time, "Ice Cream Chernobyl" is emblazoned on the side of a refrigerator at the kiosk -- with a graphic of a vanilla cone and the radiation warning symbol side-by-side.
The Russian troops that could easily have rolled past the stand on their way south toward Kyiv had planned to stay in Chernobyl, Ukrainian officials said.
The soldiers dug trenches and set up camps, but in areas like the so-called "Red Forest", named for the colour its trees turned after being hit by a heavy dose of radiation in Chernobyl's 1986 meltdown.
"Areas with high radiation levels remain here still, but the contamination was moved around due to the actions of Russian occupiers who were using heavy military vehicles," Ukraine's Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky told journalists visiting Chernobyl.
It's a site that has drawn significant international interest because of the scale of the disaster. The original Soviet-era sarcophagus deteriorated over the years so a new one was built over it and was completed in 2019.
But for some in the area, risk is just a fact of life.
"If they (the Russians) wanted to blow it up, they could blow it up when they ran away," noted Valeriy Slutsky, 75, who said he was present for the power station's 1986 disaster.
"Maybe I'm used to it (radiation)," he added with a shrug.
A.Gasser--BTB