Most probably this + the area being relatively empty makes it easier to pass through.
As a slav (balkans), chernobyl to me personally just represents the corruption and totaly failure of communism, where everything has to look great, but what's underneath the facade, doesn't matter. If things fail, you can usually just lie about that... like they did with chernobyl too.
> I hope desperately that Ukraine gains greater European unity, and Russia gets further opprobrium among those Europeans who yet still take an understanding view of Putin’s new imperialism.
Again, as someone from the balkans (even though this part is a small separate country now and a member of NATO and EU), who's seen the 1999 nato bombings in yugoslavia firsthand, and who remembers a couple of saudis flying some planes, and usa attacking afghanistan, and the "weapons of mass destruction" iraq "had", and syria and lybia, etc., I really cannot comprehend all the outrage at putin, when all the outraged countries literally have soldiers occupying some other foreign countries right this moment.
Again, as a balkaner, war is bad (even if we were the lucky ones, because the last one lasted only 10 days here, and the most notable action was shooting down a helicopter carrying bread), but if your country is currently doing the same as putin is, your leaders should really shut the fuck up.