Ukrainian official says Russians enter town near Chernobyl, seize hospital

LVIV, Ukraine — The governor of the Kyiv region says Russian forces have entered the city of Slavutych and seized a hospital there.

Slavutych is located north of Kyiv and west of Chernihiv, outside the exclusion zone that was established around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after the 1986 disaster. It is home to workers at the Chernobyl site. Russian troops overran and seized control of the plant on the first day of the invasion into Ukraine on February 24.

Governor Oleksandr Pavlyuk says Russians also kidnapped the city’s mayor, but some media reported later in the day that the mayor was released swiftly. Neither claim could be verified independently.

The governor says residents of Slavutych took to the streets with Ukrainian flags to protest the Russian invasion.

“The Russians opened fire into the air. They threw flash-bang grenades into the crowd. But the residents did not disperse, on the contrary, more of them showed up,” Pavlyuk says.

Another video from Slavutych (via suspilne), as Russian forces tried to forcibly disperse the rally, protesters did not leave – a resident claims Russian forces were pushed out of the city (unconfirmed) pic.twitter.com/0RCiaOUH8g

— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) March 26, 2022