Russian military seize Chernobyl | Why are Russia and Ukraine at odds over this nuclear catastrophe site?

            In the midst of the continuous war on Ukraine, Russian soldiers took the iconic Chernobyl nuclear power facility on Thursday, which is still a radioactive site of the world’s worst nuclear catastrophe and a role in the Soviet Union’s demise.

World leaders are concerned that the site may be abused to coerce countries into signing an agreement.

Here’s all you need to know about why Russia and Ukraine are battling over the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster:

Chernobyl is geographically positioned on the shortest road from Belarus to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, and so provides the greatest line of attack for Russian forces to invade Ukraine. According to Western military analysts, Russia simply used the shortest assault path from Belarus, a Russian ally and staging area for Russian forces, to Kyiv via taking Chernobyl.

“It was the shortest path from A to B”, said Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank’s James Acton.

Former US Army Chief of Staff Jack Keane claimed Chernobyl “doesn’t have any military value”, but it is located on the shortest road from Belarus to Kyiv, the objective of a Russian “decapitation” plot to destabilise the Ukrainian government.