Russian troops took highly radioactive 'souvenirs' looted from Chernobyl, Ukraine says

• Russian soldiers looted highly radioactive "souvenirs" from Chernobyl, a Ukrainian agency said.
• The items could cause radiation burns, radiation sickness, and irreversible processes in the body.

Russian soldiers took highly radioactive "souvenirs" from laboratories in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Ukraine said Saturday.

Invading Russian forces entered two laboratories in Chernobyl, which they looted and destroyed in an act of "nuclear terrorism," the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management said on Facebook.

Russian troops entered a repository of ionizing radiation sources in the Ecocentre laboratory and "stole and damaged 133 sources with a total activity of about seven million becquerels," the agency said.

It is comparable to 700kg (1534 pounds) of radioactive waste with the presence of beta and gamma radiation, according to the agency.

The nuclear company said that even a tiny amount could be deadly if mishandled.

Russian troops also looted and damaged the offices and a laboratory of the Institute for Nuclear Safety, stealing computers and office equipment, according to the agency.

The laboratories had sources of ionizing radiation and samples of fuel-containing materials, and the agency said it is unknown where these materials are now.

It is possible that the items were left elsewhere in the exclusion zone, but it is most likely that the items were taken by Russian troops as "souvenirs," the agency said.

The agency said the Russian troops should win a sardonic Darwin Award. The tongue-in-cheek prize recognizes individuals who "remove [themselves] from the gene pool" by accidentally killing or sterilizing themselves stupidly.

"Such acts will take away the Darwin Award even from those doomed racists who inhaled the dust of the Red Forest," the company said, referring to reports that Russian soldiers drove through the highly-radioactive forest around Chernobyl with no protective gear.

"In the case of carrying such a souvenir with you for two weeks, radiation burns are guaranteed, and radiation diseases and non-reversible processes in the body begin," the agency said.

Since one of the worst-ever nuclear disasters occurred at the Chernobyl power plant in 1986, it has been dangerously contaminated with radioactivity.

When it began its invasion of Ukraine, Russia seized the power plant and the 20-mile exclusion zone that surrounds it.

However, Ukraine said it had regained control last week, and Russian forces had withdrawn.