The power plant, the site of a 1986 nuclear disaster, has been taken over by Russian troops.
Chernobyl's "exclusion zone" - a 32 km radius around the plant - remains largely devoid of life 36 years after a faulty reactor caused a major explosion at the plant.Radiation levels in the area remain dangerously high since the 1986 leak, chronicled in an eponymous HBO mini-series in 2019 that helped make the site a tourist attraction.
The forces are part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's "special military operation" in their neighbouring country. The river runs north into Belarus, whose president has closely aligned himself with Mr Putin, and south to Kyiv. But Russians are among the world's most experienced nuclear operators, notes Claire Corkhill, a radioactive waste materials professor from the University of Sheffield.
"If people aren't properly working on that facility, and progressing the decommissioning, it could be a really big problem."Dr Taras Kuzio, research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, says the seizure of Chernobyl is therefore best looked at as a symbolic win for President Putin.