MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/. Radioactive substances, should they get into the lower layer of the atmosphere - from the surface to 3,000 meters - may reach the territory of Poland on Thursday, the leading specialist of the weather-watching center Phobos, Yevgeny Tishkovets, has said.

Earlier, the Telegram channel of the military administration of the Kiev Region said with reference to the emergency service of Ukraine reported that a fire measuring 20 hectares in area was spotted in the zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

"In case of an escape of radioactive substances from the Chernobyl exclusion zone into the lower layer of the atmosphere - from the surface to 3,000 meters - the trajectory of particles will be drifting across the northern regions of the former Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, with chances of reaching Poland in 24 hours," Tishkovets wrote on his Telegram channel.

He added that as a result of the fire and smoldering peat bogs in the Kiev Region, air quality might deteriorate and smog may begin to be felt.