Pictures have emerged of inside the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that was seized by Russian soldiers, with fears more than 100 Ukrainian guards may have been taken hostage.
The Ukrainian state nuclear company said at the end of March that Vladimir Putin's troops had left the defunct plant, which they had captured on the first day of the invasion.
More than 100 workers and 169 Ukrainian guards were trapped inside an underground nuclear bunker for more than a month without fresh air and natural light.
State-owned Energoatom said in a statement released at the end of March that these workers had flagged that Russian forces were planning to leave the territory.
"The information is confirmed that the occupiers, who seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and other facilities in the exclusion zone, have set off in two columns towards the Ukrainian border with the Republic of Belarus," it said in a statement.
The BBC reported that workers had been limiting themselves to one basic meal of mainly bread a porridge a day prepared by cooks who were also stuck there.
It was reported that Russian soldiers had delivered food but the workers turned it down saying it was a propaganda stunt.
Now pictures have emerged of inside the plant - the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986 - showing a floor blanketed with discarded clothes, cups and sleeping bags, with underwear and towels hanging from a line below the ceiling.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyy told CNN it is not known where the Ukrainian guards are, but it is feared they have been taken to Russia through Belarus.
"They were kept here for 30 days without sufficient lighting and food," he told the American news outlet.
"They were not allowed outside. On the last day, they were taken away from here in an unknown direction. Today we know nothing about their fate, unfortunately.
"The Russian military went through all Ukrainian clothes, personal belongings, like dogs, in search of, probably, money, valuables, laptops. There was looting here. The Russian military stole computers and equipment."
Engineer Valeriy Semonov was one of those trapped inside the site and spoke to the BBC about how they had to steal fuel from the Russians when the power was cut off for three days, which could have caused "catastrophic" results.
"Radioactive material could have been released," he said, "The scale of it, you can well imagine."
He added: "I wasn't scared for my life. I was scared about what would happen if I wasn't there monitoring the plant. I was scared it would be a tragedy for humanity."
The Chernobyl nuclear plant is no longer a working power station, but it was never fully abandoned and requires constant monitoring after reactor number four exploded 36 years ago.
