A20 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 , 2022
BY WHITNEY SHEFTE
AND ISABELLE KHURSHUDYANpripyat, ukraine — In a ghost town
with soil still radioactive from the
world’s worst nuclear disaster, members
of Ukraine’s armed forces and national
guard conducted combat training drills
to simulate an enemy occupation in an
urban area.
Snipers fired at wooden targets in
blown-out windows of buildings desert-
ed since the nearby Chernobyl nuclear
power plant disaster in 1986 made this
area uninhabitable. Armored vehicles
rolled down the snow-covered streets
earlier this month as men with Geiger
counters looked on to check the radia-
tion levels.
The service members practiced air
reconnaissance with drones and apply-
ing first aid on wounded comrades.
Though the exercise was hypothetical,
the ammunition was real, reverberating
through the abandoned structures that
are still marked with Soviet insignia. The
Chernobyl region borders Belarus,
where thousands of Russian soldiers
have massed ahead of massive joint
military exercises that U.S. officials have
warned could be used as a springboard t o
launch an attack on Ukraine from its
northern border.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii
Reznikov, who attended the training in
Pripyat, said he’s “not concerned” about
a Russian invasion originating from
Belarus, though attacking through this
area would offer the shortest route to the
capital, Kyiv. He noted that Ukraine has
not observed any Russian strike force
formations — which would be necessary
for an invasion, Reznikov said — gather-
ing in Belarus.
“This part of the border is the most
difficult to cross. Wetlands, woods, rivers
— this area is hard to cross not only on
tanks but even on foot,” Reznikov said,
adding that the radiation in the area is
another factor that would ward off
enemy forces from crossing through
here.
Similar drills are often held at military
training grounds across Ukraine, but
Pripyat’s ghost town status allowed the
military and national guard units to
practice the “liquidation of criminals” in
a more realistic setting. With more than
two busloads of Ukrainian and foreign
journalists present, it was also an oppor-
tunity for Ukraine to demonstrate how
far its security forces have come in the
eight years since Russian-backed sepa-
ratists sparked a conflict with Ukraine’s
military in the country’s east.
“I’m very, very sure that the Ukrainian
armed forces are ready for deterring, for
resilience,” Reznikov said. “Ukrainian
people are ready for deterring and for
resilience.”
Journalists who were invited to wit-
ness the drills had to pass through two
different checkpoints to measure their
radiation levels on their way back to
Kyiv.
U kraine troops
train in ruins
of C hernobyl
disaster
PHOTOS BY ETHAN SWOPE/BLOOMBERG NEWS
A camouflaged vehicle during an urban combat training exercise w ithin the exclusion zone in the abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine, on Feb. 4. “Ukrainian
people are ready for deterring and for resilience,” Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s Defense Minister, said of the potential threat Russia poses to the country.ABOVE: Firefighters remove a participant, simulating a
wounded casualty, from a building. L EFT: Soldiers tend
to a participant. The e xercises w ere meant to
demonstrate how far Ukraine’s security forces have come
since Russian-backed separatists sparked a conflict with
the country’s military in its east eight years ago.Ukraine if there is any conflict
with Russia,” James Heappey told
Sky News.
The Russian buildup has
drawn NATO nations deep into
Eastern Europe. U.S. officials
confirmed Friday that an addi-
tional 3,000 troops from the 82nd
Airborne Division will be sent to
Poland, adding to the 1,700 troops
already dispatched to that coun-
try, part of a flurry of reinforce-
ment announcements from
NATO nations in former Soviet
and Warsaw Pact nations.
The U.S. assessment that Putin
is likely to launch an attack is
based partly on new intelligence
that Russia is planning to stage a
“false flag” operation serving as a
guise for invading Ukraine. The
precise date and nature of the
alleged Russian operation was
unclear. U.S. officials had earlier
accused Russia of planning to
stage and film a fake attack by
Ukrainian military forces on Rus-
sia as a pretext for invasion.
Also on Saturday, Russia’s De-
fense Ministry said an American
submarine had entered Russian
waters off the Kuril Islands near
Japan, where Russia’s navy was
conducting an exercise, calling
the alleged incident a violation of
international law.
Navy Capt. Kyle Raines, a U.S.
Pacific Command spokesman,
said the American military does
not comment on the location of
submarines but said “there is no
truth to the Russian claims of our
operations in their territorial wa-
ters.”Cheng reported from Seoul and
Dixon reported from Moscow. Alex
Horton and David Stern in Kyiv, Ellen
Nakashima, Karen DeYoung, Dan
Lamothe, Amber Phillips and Ty ler
Pager in Washington, Mary Ilyushina
in Moscow and Michael E. Miller in
Sydney contributed to this report.stay in Ukraine should not expect
the U.S. government to come to
their rescue in the event of a
potential Russian attack. He
urged them to leave the country
while commercial air and rail
transport was still functioning.
“We do a great deal to provide
support for our fellow citizens,
but, as you know, there are real
limits to what we are able to do in
a war zone,” the official said.
Germany on Saturday joined a
growing list of governments urg-
ing their citizens to get out of
Ukraine as soon as possible. Brit-
ain, Latvia, Norway, the Nether-
lands, Israel, South Korea and
Japan and others have issued
similar advisories in recent days.
On Saturday, Canada said it will
relocate its staff from Kyiv to Lviv.
Dutch Airline KLM said Satur-
day it will stop service into Kyiv
immediately, canceling a flight
that was scheduled to arrive Sat-
urday night. KLM has not flown
over the eastern regions of
Ukraine and Crimea since 2014,
the carrier said, when a flight it
codeshared with Malaysian Air-
lines was shot down over eastern
Ukraine, killing all 298 people
onboard.
Despite Washington’s diplomat-
ic drawdown, military support to
Kyiv will continue, the State De-
partment official said, including
with a new shipment of ammuni-
tion due to arrive Saturday.
The Pentagon announced Sat-
urday it will also pull 160 mem-
bers of the Florida National
Guard out of western Ukraine,
where they have been deployed
on a training mission since No-
vember. The troops will be reposi-
tioned elsewhere in Europe.
A British junior defense minis-
ter said Saturday that British
military trainers in Ukraine
would leave over the weekend.
“There will be no British troops inForeign Minister Sergei Lavrov
during a tour of Pacific nations on
Saturday, warned an invasion
“would result in a resolute, mas-
sive, and united Transatlantic re-
sponse,” the State Department
said.
The United States and its allies
have promised Russia will face
harsh economic retaliation
should it invade, but at times
have differed about how far to go.
Biden has ruled out sending U.S.
forces to Ukraine.
Lavrov, for his part, accused
Washington of pushing its allies
in Kyiv to resolve its crisis in
Ukraine’s c ontested Donbas terri-
tory with force, according to Rus-
sia’s Foreign Ministry.
French President Emmanuel
Macron also spoke with Putin, for
more than 90 minutes, Saturday,
his office said, and held separate
calls with Zelensky and German
Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The Ger-
man leader is due to meet with
Putin in Moscow next week.
The State Department an-
nounced Saturday that consular
services would be suspended at
the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, but that
a small diplomatic presence in
the western city of Lviv would
handle emergencies. U.S. citizens
needing passport or visa assis-
tance should apply to embassies
in neighboring countries, offi-
cials said.
The scene was calm at the
American compound in Kyiv on
Saturday afternoon, as staffers
carried bags to waiting taxis amid
light snow. Others appeared pre-
pared for a long night in the
office. One embassy staffer met a
delivery driver on the sidewalk
and carried pizzas back inside.
A senior State Department offi-
cial, who spoke to reporters on
the condition of anonymity to
discuss sensitive matters, said
that Americans who choose to“long-term international-law se-
curity guarantees for Russia,” the
Kremlin said.
Ukrainian President Volod-
ymyr Zelensky, who has at times
espoused a skeptical assessment
of Western warnings, remained
defiant.
“We are ready for any steps
from any side, from any borders,”
he said during a visit to southern
Ukraine. “We understand that
such things can take place with-
out warning.”
Thousands of protesters, many
wearing Ukrainian flags draped
across their shoulders, filed
through central Kyiv on Saturday
to support their country’s inde-
pendence.
Demonstrators carried a large
banner printed in English that
said “Ukrainians will resist,”
along with signs in the Ukrainian
language saying “Ukraine will
triumph.”
A senior Western military offi-
cial, who spoke on the condition
of anonymity to discuss sensitive
analysis, said a worst-case sce-
nario could involve Russian forc-
es encircling Kyiv from three
sides and pinning down Ukraini-
an troops in eastern Ukraine,
where they have been battling
Russian-backed separatists since
2014.
The official said Ukrainian
forces would probably mount a
fierce fight but were “qualitative-
ly and quantitatively” out-
matched by Russia’s larger,
b etter-equipped military.
In such a pincer scenario, the
official said, “at best they compel
them to surrender; at worst they
annihilate them.”
Diplomats, meanwhile, raced
to steer the situation back from
the brink, with scant signs of
progress.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony
Blinken, on a call with Russiannear future” to recent U.S. and
NATO proposals for further secu-
rity talks. Russian officials have
said that Western nations, even
as they seek common ground on
issues including arms control
and military exercises, have
failed to address Russia’s central
demand of limiting NATO’s pres-
ence in the former Soviet sphere.
Russia has denied plans to
attack and demanded that
Ukraine, an increasingly pro-
Western former Soviet republic
that Putin considers part of his
sphere of influence, be perma-
nently barred from joining the
Western NATO alliance. NATO
has refused to budge on its open-
door policy.
Tensions along Ukraine’s bor-
ders remained high on Saturday
as Russia conducted its third day
of military exercises in Belarus,
the largest it has ever carried out
in the Kremlin-allied state to
Ukraine’s north.
The maneuvers have afforded
Russia an opportunity to tout its
field training and modern ar-
senal within striking distance of
Kyiv. Fighter jet crews have prac-
ticed destroying approaching air-
craft, and Russian motorized rifle
units paired with Belarusian spe-
cial operations forces have at-
tacked mock troop formations.
Marine scouts have also led class-
es on ambush tactics and surveil-
lance, according to Russia’s De-
fense Ministry.
The Kremlin has amassed
about 130,000 heavily armed
troops around Ukraine. Moscow
is also carrying out naval exercis-
es near the southern coastline of
mainland Ukraine. In 2014, Rus-
sia annexed Crimea from
Ukraine.
Putin spoke with Belarusian
President Alexander Lukashen-
ko, his closest ally in Europe, on
Saturday about the need for“The preconditions for possible
provocative actions of the Ukrai-
nian armed forces are being cre-
ated alongside these allegations.”
At the same time, Moscow said
it would pull its own diplomatic
staff from Ukraine, citing “possi-
ble provocations by the Kyiv re-
gime and third countries.” For-
eign Ministry spokeswoman Ma-
ria Zakharova said the decision
was in response to similar moves
by other governments.
“We conclude that our Ameri-
can and British colleagues appar-
ently know about some military
actions being prepared in
Ukraine,” she said, according to
the ministry.
Months of Biden administra-
tion warnings took on new urgen-
cy this past week, as national
security adviser Jake Sullivan is-
sued a stark assessment Friday
that a Russian invasion could
begin in coming days, likely start-
ing with a barrage of air or missile
strikes. Although Sullivan said
U.S. officials could not say wheth-
er Putin has made a final deci-
sion, he said Russian forces are
positioned for a powerful strike.
A senior U.S. official, speaking
to reporters after Biden’s call,
said there was “no fundamental
change in the dynamic” between
the two leaders during their dis-
cussion but said they agreed that
senior officials would stay in
touch.
“Russia may decide to proceed
with military action anyway,” said
the official, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity to dis-
cuss matters of national security.
“If it does, the damage to
Ukraine, to European security,
and, yes, to Russia, will be pro-
found.”
The Kremlin meanwhile said
Moscow would respond “in the
UKRAINE FROM A
U.S. d iplomats evacuated from Kyiv as Biden warns Putin