According to Greenpeace, radiation levels have actually increased in parts of Ukraine that were contaminated by the 1986 nuclear plant explosion. Key isotopes, such as cesium-137 and strontium-90, are still lingering in the forests.

Some of the hundreds of wildfires that have burned western Russia have been reported in areas that were heavily contaminated by fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Experts fear that smoke from fires in the area has become radioactive.