[nick238]

I get that Chernobyl is near the border of two countries at war, but why the everloving hell is anyone targeting anything within miles of the exclusion zone? Are there any military units anywhere near there, or is it intentionally being targeted as an oblique dirty-bomb threat?

[rich_sasha]

The whole Russian invasion is one massive exercise in contempt for human life, Ukrainian and Russian. So I don't think they would care about the hole.

[scrubs]

Yup. Science/math/chess/music and literature to name a few are better with russians involved. Then there's the russian government: that's a problem. Their military subdues by shelling to bits civil targets come what may. Then there's the Ukranian POWs and kids ... the Russia gov doesn't give a cats whisker.

[explodes]

There are certainly very real humans deciding if this target gets hit or not and why.

[justsomehnguy]

> I get that Chernobyl is near the border of two countries at war

Chernobyl is located on the border of Belarus. It's nowhere near any active military action and at least 200+ km from the active front lines.

[magic_hamster]

Because any resource which is thought to be safe from bombardment will be utilized. Sadly this is extremely common all over the world. In war zones, armed forces use hospitals, schools, etc, as a base of operation (which invalidates its protected status by international law), then cry fowl when their cover is eventually bombed. Not saying Ukraine used Chernobyl for military purposes, but it would definitely not surprise me if they did, or if Russia wanted to rule this out. Either way, war is awful, too bad we are only going towards more war and more conflict. We're a dumb species.

[stuaxo]

Or maybe they just bombed it to terrorise the population, and the bombing of schools and hospitals in other conflicts is for the same reasons.

[recursivecaveat]

Diverted from regular target, then they bombed it because it's a vaguely industrial looking structure? I don't really see the logic in deliberately bombing Chernobyl, but Russia has not been particularly discriminate. Active nuclear plants have lost external power for cooling due to targeted strikes on energy infrastructure before.