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Julia Bezdizha still can't fathom why Russian soldiers set up camp in one of the most contaminated places on earth.

Perhaps their commanders didn't understand the risks. Or worse, they knew the dangers but simply didn't care.

"It was a completely stupid order," she says.

As a tour guide, Julia used to bring tourists into the Chernobyl exclusion zone, showing them around the site of the 1986 disaster that became one of the world's worst nuclear incidents.

Now, she's returned to show the ABC the mess Russian soldiers left when they occupied the area after invading Ukraine on February 24.

As we trek through the area, her first warning is about landmines, which are still being found.

"Don't walk on the grass," she says.

Moments later, a huge boom in the distance interrupts the otherwise eerie silence. Message received.

Her next warning is about radiation. We're told to cover our bodies with clothing, not to eat or drink anything and, whatever you do, don't put any objects on the ground.

That warning makes the actions of Russian soldiers even harder to comprehend, since most of the danger lies in the soil.

Ukrainian officials say when Russian troops rolled into Chernobyl from nearby Belarus, they drove their tanks through the highly contaminated Red Forest, kicking up dust along the way.

Then, they chose a patch of land just outside the forest to build a camp.

A maze of trenches has been carved deep in the soil, alongside temporary shelters.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has visited the site and measured the radiation in the trenches.

While it was four times higher than on surrounding roads, the IAEA said it was still within the safe range.

Even so, IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi told reporters last month that digging up the soil was still risky, especially without protective equipment.

"Quite clearly, it's not a place to have a picnic or excavate," he said.

Julia says by building trenches at Chernobyl, these soldiers were risking their lives.

"These occupying soldiers could have received a high dose of radiation, which will lead to health problems for the rest of the life," she says.

"Their life span will depend on how long they have spent in these trenches," she said.

One of the most famous sites in the exclusion zone was also one of the least-disturbed during Russia's occupation of the Chernobyl area.

The abandoned city of Pripyat, which was originally built to house the nuclear power plant's employees and their families, offered very little comfort to the invading soldiers.

The vine-covered apartments and decaying hotels are not livable. The Russian troops only entered them to disable the mobile phone towers perched on top.

The old fairground, with its dodgem cars and rusty Ferris wheel, appears to have been left untouched.

The town of Chernobyl itself was not so lucky.

Residents say Russian troops seemed determined to damage and steal as much as possible.

"They looted everything," says Oleksander Skirta, an engineer who was on duty at the time.

"They smashed all the doors and windows, trying to get into apartments.

"All the offices and warehouses were looted."

They ran over cars with their tanks, smashed computers and whitegoods, stole the wheels from cars and even cut out the chrome badges from the steering wheels.

What they couldn't take, they would break.

"It's like they were doing it for fun," Oleksander says.

Oleksander, like many other Chernobyl residents, lives in the town for 15 days a month while maintaining facilities in the wider exclusion zone.

He then leaves to give his body a break from radiation.

He said the soldiers' erratic, "illogical" behaviour made him fear for the safety of the old nuclear reactor.

"We were very worried about what could happen," he says.

"Electricity and the mobile phone connections were shut down. We didn't know what was going on."

Russian commanders understood the need to keep the nuclear facility running.

They brought in experts from their own atomic energy agency, but also forced Ukrainian technicians to work gruelling shifts so they could monitor operations at the site.

In March, when power to the facility was interrupted, Ukraine's government warned the spent nuclear fuel could overheat and trigger a major disaster.

The IAEA said there was no immediate risk and the power was ultimately restored.

However Ukrainian officials say some of the soldiers patrolling the facility handled highly radioactive materials and some even stole contaminated objects.

"We can't understand the behaviour of some of the Russian soldiers," Julia said.

"They've taken this back to Belarus and from there, to their homes."

Russian troops blew up the bridges as they withdrew across the border in early April, to stop any potential pursuit by the Ukrainian army.

But whatever radiation they were exposed to at Chernobyl could still catch up with them.

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