Russian forces have taken control of Ukraine’s Slavutych, where workers at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant live, the governor of the Kyiv region said on Saturday.

In an online post, Governor Oleksandr Pavlyuk did not describe how the town had been taken but said some residents had unfurled a large Ukrainian flag and shouted “Glory to Ukraine” in protest.

He also said the Russians fired into the air to disperse the pro-Ukraine protest in the center of the town.

There was no immediate comment from Russia about Slavutych.

Slavutych sits just outside a safety exclusion zone around Chernobyl – the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986 – where Ukrainian staff has continued to work even after the territory was captured by Russian forces soon after the start of the Feb. 24 operation.

Presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said the town had become a new hotspot of the war.

On Friday, Ukraine said Russian troops had drawn close to the town, which had a pre-war population of around 25,000, and had launched an unsuccessful first attack.

Source: Agencies