It seems to be Putin is terrified that just dust kicked up at Chernobyl will contaminate Russia. There was a battle to secure the facility. Ironically all the military vehicles involved stirred up dust causing a 20 fold spike in radiation compared to the typical level. I can't accept that Putin would nuke any European country. If he were to nuke anywhere I think it would be the US far away from Russia.
Russia wasn’t scared about Chernobyl they captured it because it was on the way to Kyiv and it was before they started bypassing towns and infrastructure due to their poor combat performance.
Putin took Chernobyl because A) it's pretty much on the way from the Belarus border and B) it's a convenient staging area for forces where they're mostly immune to attack from heavy artillery or drones, precisely because of the risk of breaching the containment.
