Was a high level of radiation detected in Kyiv on May 16? No, that's not true: the average daily radiation rate was within the permitted limits. Rumors of radioactive leaks in the region spread after a drone attack on the city of Khmelnytskyi that caused multiple explosions.
The claim originated from a video (archived here) published on TikTok by @ukraine_ndu on May 16, 2023 with the following text added to the video:
Attention! Radiation has been detected in Kyiv!! It is just scary
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu May 18 12:23:30 2023 UTC)
The claim appeared just days after an explosion in the city of Khmelnytskyi (a city about 300 km away from Kyiv) with a similar story of high radiation levels due to chemical leaks and was rebutted by the city mayor, Oleksandr Simchishyn.
According to Radioactivity Environmental Monitoring Research Center, the average daily rate of gamma dose in Kyiv was 83 nSv/hour, which is considered a typical level of terrestrial radiation exposure (not including dose from ingested and inhaled radionuclides).
