Ukraine holds urban warfare drills in Chornobyl Zone

PRYPYAT, CHORNOBYL EXCLUSION ZONE – Cold and tired after so many sleepless days in battle, Ukrainian troops with National Guard special units go on the offensive, smashing the last resisting enemy troops at the roadway strongpoint in hard combat.

Minutes later, Ukrainian troops backed by the KORD special police forces continue the attack and storm the building nearby.

That was the scripted exercises carried out by Ukraine's National Guard, the police, as well as the emergency service in the ghost city of Prypyat, in the so-called Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, 150 kilometers north of Kyiv.

The legendary city which used to host nearly 50,000 dwellers was evacuated days following the infamous 1986 disaster on the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant just 3 kilometers away.

Ever since then, the city, along with the former nuclear station now covered with a giant confinement structure, is the heart of the 30-kilometer alienation zone that is expected to remain uninhabitable for the upcoming centuries.

The city, which is partly contaminated by radioactive fallout, stays abandoned up to this day. Its once-thriving streets and building are decaying and getting absorbed by nature.

But once in a while, Ukraine's law enforcement agencies use the ghost city to exercise in urban warfare, bringing back sweet memories for fans of the Ukrainian shooter video game series S.T.A.L.K.E.R., taking place in Prypyat and popular in the mid-2000s.

The abandoned city, with its buildings and ruins, is an ideal arena for such training.

As part of the drills, the enemy was isolated in the close quarter, has sustained losses and couldn't be reinforced. Their organized positions were held in an abandoned 5-story building.

Ukrainian joint forces were tasked with regaining several dozen of meters from the enemy.

The enemy offered fierce resistance from the inside, machine guns went all blazing against the Ukrainian armored personnel carrier (APC), covering the offensive.

Shortly after, a Ukrainian special operations squad covertly makes it inside. Ukrainian troops successfully secure the premises.

The National Guard, as well as the police, and other law enforcement departments, are indeed preparing to wage effective street warfare as Russia continues threatening a full-scale invasion, greatly alarming Ukraine and the West.

Since November, Russia has elevated tensions on Ukraine’s border by massing over 120,000 troops along with tanks, artillery and other military equipment. Additionally, Russia has moved troops and equipment into Belarus, Ukraine’s northern neighbor, for joint military drills.

According to some intelligence reports, Russia might be considering seizing much of Ukraine by destroying the country's armed forces in a series of offensives avoiding cities.

Ukrainian cities, meanwhile, are expected to be an extremely complicated game for Russian invaders, and grueling, fierce urban warfare is likely to wear out a lot of Russian manpower and resources if the Kremlin decides to further invade.

Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told the Kyiv Independent, amid the drills, that the fact that Ukrainian forces hold drills in the Chornobyl Zone does not mean that Russia is likely to launch an offensive in the contaminated area, due to its tight forestall terrain and numerous swamps.

Despite that, the Zone remains an ideal training ground for Ukrainian forces looking to defend the country's cities in case of an all-out war.