Photos: Ukrainian Troops Spotted Drilling for Urban Combat in Abandoned Pripyat, Near Chernobyl

Ukrainian troops practiced urban combat and other tactics in the northern city of Pripyat on Friday, according to AFP. Due to many unique characteristics of the area, it offered a unique training opportunity. However, it’s also very dangerous, as the city lies within the fallout zone irradiated by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, when a nearby nuclear power plant experienced a partial meltdown during a safety test.

Service members take part in tactical exercises, which are conducted by the Ukrainian National Guard, Armed Forces, special operations units and simulate a crisis situation in an urban settlement, in the abandoned city of Pripyat near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine February 4, 2022.

"As there are no civilians around here we can conduct exercises with real ammunition in a situation as close to actual urban warfare as possible," one Ukrainian soldier told AFP. According to the agency, the troops practiced clearing buildings of enemy troops, targeted mortar fire and engaging snipers in urban conditions. Emergency service workers also practiced evacuations and firefighting.

Photos of the drills show troops in snow gear maneuvering down streets and through wooded areas, and the erection of “hedgehog” tank traps and concertina wire.

An armoured personnel carrier is seen during tactical exercises, which are conducted by the Ukrainian National Guard, Armed Forces, special operations units and simulate a crisis situation in an urban settlement, in the abandoned city of Pripyat near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine February 4, 2022.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, who was accompanied by journalists to the Exclusion Zone, downplayed the threat posed by Russian soldiers, but described the Exclusion Zone as a major obstacle, with radiation forming just one peril.

"This area is very hard to get through - forests, swamp, rivers - it's complicated enough to move by foot, let alone with a tank," Reznikov said. "And don't forget that still since the disaster, there remain some highly radioactive areas on the route from Belarus."

Civilians generally aren’t allowed in the exclusion zone, where some of the worst radiation spewed by the fire inside of Chernobyl Reactor No. 4 fell and irradiated the soil. The area covers some 1,000 square kilometers and abuts the Belarusian border.

Pripyat, which at the time had 50,000 people, many of whom were employed at the nuclear power plant, was evacuated after the April 1986 incident, along with numerous other towns in the area. Since then, it’s become an eerie ghost city, and the surrounding countryside has been studied by naturalists fascinated with what happens when all human interaction halts.

A New Safe Containment Shelter has also been erected over the collapsed fourth reactor to halt further radioactive leaking - a task it’s expected to perform for the next century.

An aerial view of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and a new shelter, left, installed over the exploded reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, in Chernobyl, Ukraine, Thursday, April 26, 2018.

Kiev deployed several thousand troops to the area beginning in November, when the West began raising fears of alleged Russian invasion plans after Russian troops were deployed near the Ukrainian border. If an attack were to come from Belarus, the Exclusion Zone offers one of the quickest ways to the capital of Kiev.

Moscow has denied plans for an invasion, and troops deployed to Belarus are scheduled for combined drills later this month. Indeed, Kiev has also sought to play down Western fears, saying the Russian forces near the border aren’t numerous enough to constitute an invasion force, and that such deployments are both legal and typical.

As a way to defuse the crisis, Moscow has made a security proposal that would protect its western flank, asking NATO not to expand further eastward, including refusing to admit Ukraine as a future member of the alliance. Moscow has also demanded that no offensive forces be stationed by NATO in Ukraine.

So far, the alliance has refused to write off the possibility of admitting Ukraine, but has made some concessions about stationing offensive weapons in Ukraine or certain other weapons in nearby states. However, the US has demanded Russia pull its troops back from near the Ukrainian border, putting the entire blame for the crisis on Russia’s shoulders.