Ukrainian Border Police Seize 90 Pounds Of Blueberries Picked In Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd August, 2020) Ukrainian border patrol personnel seized up to 40 kilograms (88 Pounds) of radioactive blueberries from two men in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the country's State Border Guard Service said on Sunday.

"The border guards of the Zhytomyr detachment, together with the police officers, found two people who were picking blueberries in the radiation-contaminated territory. The men, residents of the village of Berezovo, Rivne region, illegally entered the territory of the exclusion zone to collect 'gifts of nature' with the aim of their subsequent sale," the service wrote on its website.

The men will be slapped with administrative offences for violating radiation safety regime requirements, the service wrote, explaining that the radiation background levels in the exclusion zone were at least four times higher than the permissible norm.

"The collected blueberries with a total weight of almost 40 kilograms were seized," the civil service added.

About 1,000 square miles in the area have been completely depopulated and left for nature to reclaim following the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl NPP.