Ukrainians prepare for possibility of war at the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster

through the forests of northern Ukraine. It appears the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, a monument to humanity's ability to unleash uncontrollable forces. Suddenly the apparent calm left behind by the 1986 Soviet era accident is broken. Ukrainian forces run drills in what remains a radiation exclusion zone free of any inhabitants. They're practicing urban combat. Of course this is also an information and propaganda war. Everyone waits for Russian president Vladimir Putin to decide even as Ukraine questions an earlier U. S. Assessment of just how imminent a potential invasion is. So we have the same facts but the difference perception or different estimation, the differences on the question of intention. You don't believe they intend to invade. I hope that In Kremlin they didn't make their decisions still. But Chernobyl is only 10 miles from the border with Belarus where Russia has been holding joint military exercises. These are just some of the 30,000 Russian combat troops that NATO has warned are on their way welcomed with bread and salt and open arms to the east of Chernobyl lies this neutral zone between Ukraine Russia and Belarus. It's known as the Three sisters crossing in memory of a time when the three countries were all soviet Republics But more than 30 years on from the collapse of the Soviet Union, Belarus is a staunch ally of Russia. While Ukraine fears an invasion barely visible through the freezing mist across the border in Belarus, a soviet era monument to the sister Nations and at the Three Sisters cafe on the Ukrainian side, there is more nostalgia for that past than there is worry about war. Masha, a 64 year old great grandmother works here to supplement her state pension worth the equivalent of just $77 a month. She says will Putin go to war with civilians. He won't do that. I have brothers and sisters living in Russia in Belarus, I would dissolve the parliament in Kiev, kicked them out of parliament every last one of them. They should give the people proper pensions so that people won't be beggars. The nearby village of san Kiska is only a three hour drive from Kiev but feels much further. This man won't tell us his name for fear of being labeled a separatist. He too misses the unity of the past and certainly doesn't appreciate visit to Kiev from the likes of the british prime Minister Boris. The uncommon comes here only whipping the tensions up. Only a fool would start a war. Nobody will come out a winner. He says, nobody melissa Bell CNN sent to Ukraine

It's a frigid Friday in Ukraine's Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, and dozens of journalists in fluorescent yellow vests are frantically elbowing each other as they vie for camera position in a town where no one has lived since 1986.Chernobyl has been abandoned since the world's worst nuclear disaster here three decades ago. But with tens of thousands of Russian troops amassing on Ukraine's border with Belarus just a few miles away, the ghost town is now playing host to security forces training for war. Ukraine is using Chernobyl to prepare for another potential cataclysm.Russian President Vladimir Putin has consistently denied that the Kremlin is planning an incursion into Ukraine. Russia's deployments in Belarus are ostensibly linked to joint exercises due to begin on Thursday. However, satellite photographs show Russian camps being established close to the border with Ukraine, hundreds of miles from where the exercises are taking place.If Russia were to invade Ukraine, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is a possible conduit to Kyiv. American and NATO officials say President Putin is steadily increasing his military presence in Belarus from 5,000 troops in January to an estimated 30,000 sometime this month.NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that the deployment into Belarus is Russia's biggest since the Cold War, and many of those forces are just a two-hour drive from Kyiv.Propaganda battleThe air is thick with sulfur as national guard troops clear the town of imagined enemy soldiers, firing hundreds of rounds of live ammunition into plywood cutouts in the windows of surrounding buildings.A sniper fires into an orange target high in an apartment block. A mortar is launched into a snowy clearing. An armored vehicle trundles past roadblocks to confront assailants held up in the second story of a building.More than 35 years ago, an explosion at the Vladimir Lenin Nuclear Power Plant forced a region-wide evacuation, sending radioactive fallout billowing across Europe. Thirty-one people died in the blast, while millions were exposed to dangerous radiation levels. Estimates of the final death toll from long-term health problems are as high as 200,000.Now, in training for war, Ukraine has brought the world's media along to see.Denys Monastyrsky, Ukraine's internal affairs minister, told journalists that security forces were using the Chernobyl exercises to demonstrate how far they have come in urban combat tactics since Russia annexed Crimea and pro-Russian separatists seized a swathe of eastern Ukraine nearly eight years ago."All these scenarios are taken and summarized from the cases that have occurred since 2014," Monastyrsky said.The spectacle, however, is also an attempt by Kyiv to match the glitzy propaganda effort coming out of Moscow.On the diplomatic front, Russia has repeatedly accused NATO of being the party responsible for the crisis, arguing the alliance's eastward expansion poses an existential threat. Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, is pumping out propaganda videos worthy of a Hollywood production, with tank columns driving at maximum speed across the frozen steppe and ground-attack fighters swooping into bases in southern Belarus.The exact nature of Russia's threat to Ukraine remains unclear and a point of contention.Ukrainian officials have spent much of the past few weeks playing down the U.S. estimation that a Russian invasion could be "imminent," concerned that the dire language was causing panic and destabilizing the economy."We have the same facts, but the different perception, or a different estimation," Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told CNN after watching the exercises in Chernobyl.The White House is no longer calling a potential invasion "imminent" due to concerns, they say, that the term suggests Putin has already made a decision to invade Ukraine.Nonetheless, Ukraine admits that Russia's military buildup in Belarus is worrying.'Only a fool would start a war'War is far from the minds of many Ukrainians who live near the border where Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia meet."They've been saying 'a war is coming' for five years now," said one man who asked not to be named."Only a fool would start a war," he said. "There won't be any winners."At the Three Sisters Cafe, named for the three former Soviet republics, 64-year-old Masha pours espresso in paper cups for the weary drivers who wander in.Truck after truck is waiting to cross into Russia. Some are stuck for days, slowed by Covid restrictions. They have few options but to wait and sip a hot drink from the cafe.Masha is convinced: No war is coming here."It ain't gonna happen," she yells, waving her hand in the air. "Will Putin go to war with civilians? He won't do that. Never in his life. It's all lies, politics. We don't even think about it."She works in the cafe, she says, to supplement her pension, which is the equivalent of about $77 a month. She is less concerned with the geopolitical games being played by world leaders than the hardships of everyday life."If I could, I would have the Parliament dissolved," she said. "They should have given the people proper pensions. So that people won't be beggars, paupers."Peter Vujcic, a Serb truck driver old enough to remember war in his own country, is also unconcerned.Vujcic spoke to CNN while on his way to the Serbian capital, Belgrade, shortly after crossing Belarus' border with Russia. He said he's seen military hardware coming back and forth in the Belarus, but he's not worried about it."Everything will be fine," he said with a smile, leaning out of his cab window.

Chernobyl has been abandoned since the world's worst nuclear disaster here three decades ago. But with tens of thousands of Russian troops amassing on Ukraine's border with Belarus just a few miles away, the ghost town is now playing host to security forces training for war. Ukraine is using Chernobyl to prepare for another potential cataclysm.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has consistently denied that the Kremlin is planning an incursion into Ukraine. Russia's deployments in Belarus are ostensibly linked to joint exercises due to begin on Thursday. However, satellite photographs show Russian camps being established close to the border with Ukraine, hundreds of miles from where the exercises are taking place.

If Russia were to invade Ukraine, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is a possible conduit to Kyiv. American and NATO officials say President Putin is steadily increasing his military presence in Belarus from 5,000 troops in January to an estimated 30,000 sometime this month.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that the deployment into Belarus is Russia's biggest since the Cold War, and many of those forces are just a two-hour drive from Kyiv.

Propaganda battle

The air is thick with sulfur as national guard troops clear the town of imagined enemy soldiers, firing hundreds of rounds of live ammunition into plywood cutouts in the windows of surrounding buildings.

A sniper fires into an orange target high in an apartment block. A mortar is launched into a snowy clearing. An armored vehicle trundles past roadblocks to confront assailants held up in the second story of a building.

More than 35 years ago, an explosion at the Vladimir Lenin Nuclear Power Plant forced a region-wide evacuation, sending radioactive fallout billowing across Europe. Thirty-one people died in the blast, while millions were exposed to dangerous radiation levels. Estimates of the final death toll from long-term health problems are as high as 200,000.

Now, in training for war, Ukraine has brought the world's media along to see.

Denys Monastyrsky, Ukraine's internal affairs minister, told journalists that security forces were using the Chernobyl exercises to demonstrate how far they have come in urban combat tactics since Russia annexed Crimea and pro-Russian separatists seized a swathe of eastern Ukraine nearly eight years ago.

"All these scenarios are taken and summarized from the cases that have occurred since 2014," Monastyrsky said.

The spectacle, however, is also an attempt by Kyiv to match the glitzy propaganda effort coming out of Moscow.

On the diplomatic front, Russia has repeatedly accused NATO of being the party responsible for the crisis, arguing the alliance's eastward expansion poses an existential threat. Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, is pumping out propaganda videos worthy of a Hollywood production, with tank columns driving at maximum speed across the frozen steppe and ground-attack fighters swooping into bases in southern Belarus.

The exact nature of Russia's threat to Ukraine remains unclear and a point of contention.

Ukrainian officials have spent much of the past few weeks playing down the U.S. estimation that a Russian invasion could be "imminent," concerned that the dire language was causing panic and destabilizing the economy.

"We have the same facts, but the different perception, or a different estimation," Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told CNN after watching the exercises in Chernobyl.

The White House is no longer calling a potential invasion "imminent" due to concerns, they say, that the term suggests Putin has already made a decision to invade Ukraine.

Nonetheless, Ukraine admits that Russia's military buildup in Belarus is worrying.

'Only a fool would start a war'

War is far from the minds of many Ukrainians who live near the border where Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia meet.

"They've been saying 'a war is coming' for five years now," said one man who asked not to be named.

"Only a fool would start a war," he said. "There won't be any winners."

At the Three Sisters Cafe, named for the three former Soviet republics, 64-year-old Masha pours espresso in paper cups for the weary drivers who wander in.

Truck after truck is waiting to cross into Russia. Some are stuck for days, slowed by Covid restrictions. They have few options but to wait and sip a hot drink from the cafe.

Masha is convinced: No war is coming here.

"It ain't gonna happen," she yells, waving her hand in the air. "Will Putin go to war with civilians? He won't do that. Never in his life. It's all lies, politics. We don't even think about it."

She works in the cafe, she says, to supplement her pension, which is the equivalent of about $77 a month. She is less concerned with the geopolitical games being played by world leaders than the hardships of everyday life.

"If I could, I would have the Parliament dissolved," she said. "They should have given the people proper pensions. So that people won't be beggars, paupers."

Peter Vujcic, a Serb truck driver old enough to remember war in his own country, is also unconcerned.

Vujcic spoke to CNN while on his way to the Serbian capital, Belgrade, shortly after crossing Belarus' border with Russia. He said he's seen military hardware coming back and forth in the Belarus, but he's not worried about it.

"Everything will be fine," he said with a smile, leaning out of his cab window.

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