Keeping Chornobyl's memory alive - 4th May 2026

Residents of Slavutych in Ukraine are holding a memorial to mark 40 years since Chornobyl. Many of their relatives and friends died due to the worst ever nuclear accident.

On 26th April 1986, an explosion inside Reactor 4 at Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant destroyed the reactor. Radioactive materials were blown into the air and carried across the Soviet Union and Europe by the wind.

The Soviet Union only admitted to the accident two days later, after high radiation levels had been detected in Sweden.

While two engineers died due to the explosion, many suffered radiation burns. 237 workers were taken into hospital. Over half were diagnosed with Acute Radiation Syndrome, which took 28 lives within 3 months.

Radiation levels around the accident site were extremely high. The Soviet authorities set up a 30-kilometre exclusion zone and evacuated 115,000 residents.

Slavutych was built to rehome many people who worked at Chornobyl. Every year, its residents honour their relatives' bravery, 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."

Since the accident, Chornobyl's been responsible for an estimated 4,000 to 16,000 deaths. However, without the work of 'Chornobyl liquidators', this number would be far higher. They worked in unsafe levels of radiation to prevent more of the radioactive material leaving the site.

In 2016, the New Safe Confinement arch was placed over the remains of Reactor 4. It had been designed to last for 100 years. However, it was hit by a Russian attack drone in 2025.

Like many whose grandparents were Chornobyl liquidators, Olga Shevchenko isn't just remembering the past. Her father still works at Chornobyl, and her mind is on its 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."