City remembers Chornobyl accident - 4th May 2026

People in Slavutych, Ukraine, are remembering Chornobyl. It's the world's worst nuclear accident. Chornobyl killed many of their friends and family.

On 26th April 1986, a nuclear reactor exploded. The explosion sent radiation into the air. This radiation travelled across the Soviet Union and Europe.

For two days, the Soviet government didn't tell anyone. Then, scientists in Sweden found high levels of radiation.

The explosion killed two engineers. The radiation was more dangerous. 237 workers stayed in hospital. In 3 months, 28 of them died.

The area around Chornobyl was unsafe. 115,000 people needed new homes.

The government built Slavutych. Most people in Slavutych lived near Chornobyl. Their families saved the world, says Mayor Yuriy Fomichev.

Yuriy Fomichev: "April 26th is a significant date for our city. And every year on this night, we gather in the central square to honour those people who saved lives through sheer heroism. Not with technology, not for a large sum of money, but simply because it had to be done. It was necessary to save the world. It was necessary to protect the world from the danger that occurred at the Chornobyl plant."

Radioactivity lasts for many years. 4,000 to 16,000 people died because of Chornobyl. But this number could be much higher.

Some people worked at the accident site. The 'Chornobyl liquidators' walked into dangerous radiation. Their work stopped more radioactivity leaving the area.

Now, there's a new cover over the reactor. But a Russian war drone hit this building.

Olga Shevchenko's from Slavutych. Her grandparents were Chornobyl liquidators. Now, her father works at Chornobyl. She remembers the past and thinks about the future.

Olga Shevchenko: "Yet this disaster is so immense that it will take many more years to fully liquidate it. I don't know how many hundreds of years it will take. And that is why we must remember both what happened and what will happen, and I don't think the two are connected."