Russia-Ukraine Flash Report - 4/6/22 11:00 PDT (Patreon)

Drone video and satellite photos show that Russian troops did dig extensive trenches and other defensive positions in the red forest at Chernobyl.

The surface soil remains highly contaminated with Caesium 137 (Cesium 137 USA) and Strontium 90 and is considered a "no go" zone by employees of the plant.

Digging the trenches would have increased the amount of radioactivity. If the deadwood was burned for cooking or heat, the smoke would have been radioactive. the location of the trenches and defensive works were in some of the most irradiated parts of the area.

Both Caesium 137 and Strontium 90 have reached their half-lives (30.7 years and 28.8 years respectively). Caesium 137 is highly reactive to water. The late winter weather was cold and wet, which would have increased exposure for the troops in the area. Caesium 137 can be treated with Prussian Blue according to the University of Google.

Five percent of all the Strontium 90 in nature was released by Chernobyl. Strontium 90 gets into the body by breathing in dust particles and consuming contaminated food and water. To the human body, Strontium 90 is similar to calcium so it binds to the bones. Strontium 90 covers the entire planet due to open-air testing of nuclear weapons. Americans born in the 1950s and 1960s from the Mississippi Valley east, have Strontium 90 concentrations in their body 40X to 50X higher than people born in the 1940s. 

ASSESSMENT: It remains highly unlikely that exposure to the red forest would produce Acute Radiation Sickness. Symptoms occur minutes or hours after a significant exposure and require a (relatively speaking) large dose. It is increasingly possible some were sickened due to the long-term exposure to the red forest, particularly if they used the dead trees to make fires and were in wet conditions. It isn't impossible, but highly unlikely, that highly contaminated debris remained just under the surface in the red forest. 

The long-term impact of potential pancreatic cancer, bone cancer, and leukemia, will be unknown, and likely never documented.