The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was one of the first key infrastructures seized by the Russian forces during its initial advance to Kyiv on February 24. While they have long evacuated the nuclear plant as they shifted their focus on taking the Donbas region, they left something very disgusting while occupying the facility. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Russian forces left huge piles of excrement in each office of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

That’s a peculiar parting gift, to say the least. The Russian forces were reported to have left huge mounds of defecation in each of the office rooms in the plant for unknown reasons. We’re unsure why they did this, as the power plant had working restrooms. Thus it can only be one thing: The Russian forces were undisciplined slobs who wanted to defecate in each office room of the facility to infuriate the Ukrainians who were going to take back the facility.

“The poop was the icing on the cake,” Deputy Director of the Chernobyl Ecocenter Aleksandr Barsukov said to The Wall Street Journal. Barsukov was one of the employees who worked at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant who returned to the facility to inspect how much damage the Russian forces dealt with the facility. It was later revealed that aside from the excrement, the conference rooms were all vandalized and spraypainted and that their computers were all found to be destroyed and smashed in. Their important files relating to maintaining the power plant had also been tampered with, with the files lying all across the offices.

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant satellite image (Maxar via Jack Detsch). Source: https://twitter.com/JackDetsch/status/1502320922459611142
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant satellite image (Maxar via Jack Detsch/Twitter)

Interestingly, the Russian forces took all of the hard drives of all the computers from the facility, which may indicate that they were searching for specific information from the power plant or were just scavenging computer parts to take back home to Russia. These troops had also left some 100 liters of high-quality vodka in the plant, indicating that they had been heavily drinking during their time occupying the plant.

In a separate report by The Washington Post, it was determined that 698 computers were looted from the plant. The list of stolen and damaged belongings from the plant were some 344 vehicles, 1,500 radiation dosimeters, firefighting equipment, and various irreplaceable software. Some of these equipment had trackers in them, with the Ukrainian authorities from the plant determining that their equipment had made it all the way back to Belarus.

“We see that part of it is located on the territory of Belarus, along the border. And part moves around the territory of Belarus — Gomel, Minsk, other places,” Yevhen Kramarenko, director of the exclusion zone, said.

He would add that they lost over $135 million in replacing this damaged equipment, with the custom-made software for the plant being irreplaceable. They also cannot monitor the radiation levels without this equipment.

“Now it is not possible to provide reliable information, whether the equipment is in working condition or not, because there is no software,” he added. “The Russians will not be able to use it because the software is unique, made especially for our devices.”