On April 26, 1986, at 1:23 a.m. reactor number four of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, exploded. It was the worst technological catastrophe of the modern era, changing the lives of millions of people. The explosion released tons of radioactive dust into the air, which contaminated both hemispheres of our planet. Almost all of Europe was affected and 65 million people were contaminated. The most contaminated areas spanning 260 thousand square kilometers of territory (almost as large as Italy) will return to normal background levels of radiation in about two hundred thousand years.
After the Chernobyl nuclear accident, a 30-kilometer radius exclusion zone was created around the nuclear power plant. 116,000 people were evacuated and lost their homes, possessions, jobs, along with their economic, social and family ties. Dozens of villages were buried forever. But the zone, which was supposed to be a dead zone, never really was.
Pripyat ferris wheel engulfed by undergrowth as nature reclaims the abandoned town. Founded in 1970 to house workers at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, by the time of the explosion in 1986 it had a population of 50,000 all of whom were evactuated. Ironically the ferris wheel was due to be officially opened on 1st May 1986 five days after the disaster.
Workers at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant inside a corridor in block number 3. (11/2024)
There is life inside the zone and thousands of people cross the radiation boundary every day. Today 4,000 people live in the city of Chernobyl. They are the military and police personnel to who control access to the zone and the operators of the reactors that are still not decommissioned. There is also all the staff needed to run the area, including office, canteen, and supermarket staff, hospital, scientific laboratory and post office staff, etc. There are still some resettlers, local residents who never wanted to leave their homes. Chernobyl looks like a normal Ukrainian town with the main services. That was before the war with Russia, now the zone has totally changed.
Family photographs on the wall of an abandoned house inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone near the decommissioned nuclear power plant. On 29 April 1986, during a routine safety test, reactor number 4 exploded, releasing high levels of radiation.
Buildings in Chernobyl-2 overwhelmed by vegetation. (11/2025)
On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, occupying the Chernobyl exclusion zone on day one and isolating it from the rest of the world. For more than a month the Chernobyl power plant remained in the hands of the Russians, until March 31 when the Russian troops began to withdraw. During that time life totally changed for the residents of Chernobyl. The Russians left devastation and death behind them. Following the retreat of the Russians, the zone became a military zone with no access to anyone. Today the Chernobyl exclusion zone is fully militarized and mined to prevent a new attack by Russia. The work of workers in the zone flows as usual, but their lives have changed forever.
Soldiers stop vehicles at a new military check point at the entrance of the city of Chernobyl following the Russian invasion and withdrawal. (11/2024)
Post boxes in an abandoned residential block in the ghost town of Pripyat near the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
A snarling fox roaming the abandoned streets of of Pripyat. In the absence of humams wildlife has thrived in the Chernobyl exclusion zone which is now Europe's largest nature reserve.
Tourists in the control room of reactor number 1, Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Chernobyl exclusion zone, Ukraine. Tourism was halted after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
A tourist shop selling souvenirs about Chernobyl at the Dytiatky Check Point. Before the Russian invasion in 2022, when all tourism to the exclusion zone was halted, up to 90,000 people a year crossed the radiation border to visit the site.
An old Soviet era handset in a telephone cabin in the post office in Chernoby no longer in use also due to the advent of mobile phones.
Tourist members of Jewish Hassidic community waiting to enter the former Chernobyl Synagogue within the exclusion zone. Since the Russian invasion in 2022 all tourism to the area has been halted.
Aleksandr Sherekh while sleeping on the roof of a building in the ghost town of Pripyat, in the background the Chernobyl nuclear power plant can be seen. He is one a growing band of Chernobyl stalkers, mainly young men who enter the zone illegally. They take their name from the 1979 Andrei Tarkovsky film.
Eugene Knyazev - one of a band of stalkers - walks through the ghost town of Pripyat which he has entered illegally.
A gate keeper raises a barrier to let a vehicle pass at the entrance to the city of Pripyat.
Today after almost 4 years of war the situation remains very difficult for the local population. In addition to facing radiation and war, the population must also deal with a lack of resources. Even before the war, the Ukrainian healthcare system was in a difficult condition, today there is a lack of resources to adequately treat those suffering from the consequences of Chernobyl. As a result, the lives of the people of Chernobyl are today worse than ever.
The road from Chernobyl to Pripyat lined with trenches and road blocks, part of the defences erected to prevent a new Russian invasion through the Chernobyl exclusion zone. On the first day of the war - February 24th 2022 - Russian soliders entered Chernobyl from Belarus but withdrew just over a month later. (11/2024)
A deminers from the NGO HALO Trust using a drone to locate landmines laid by the Russians just outside the Chernobyl exclusion zone. (11/2025)
At the present time nine million people in Belarus, the Ukraine and western Russia continue to live in areas with very high levels of radioactivity, consuming contaminated food and water. Eighty percent of the population of Belarus, Western Russia and North Ukraine suffer from a variety of pathologies. After the Chernobyl disaster, in the contaminated areas there has been a huge increase in radiation-related tumors, malformations and an assortment of various radiation-related pathologies. And there will be still more effects to come among women who at the time of the disaster were under the age of six and are now starting to have children. Now we will see the effects of genetic mutation on new generations. Today, life for the local people goes on, and they must struggle with the terrible legacy of the Chernobyl accident, a legacy that will endure for millennia. 40 years after the accident, the story of Chernobyl is only beginning.
Workers inside the control room of reactor number 2, at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
A view through the stumps of a forest, burned by wild fires, to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the new confinement sarcophagus that shields reactor number 4. During the Russian occupation in 2022 forest fires were set off by Russian shelling. (11/2024)
Volodymir was one of the few fire fighters who survived the night of the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown event on 26 April 1986. He died on 18 November 2020, from liver cancer probably caused by exposure to radiation.
The Duga military antenna , a remnant from the Cold War, within the Chernobyl exclusion zone. The Duga was an over-the-horizon radar (OTH) system used in the Soviet Union as part of its early-warning radar network for missile defence.
A woman at a monument to soldiers killed during the current war with Russia in the radiation contaminated village of Sloboda Kharska near the Chernobyl exclusion zone. (11/2024)
A statue of Lenin which had managed to survive the removal of Soviet momunments following Ukrainian independence. (11/2017)
The same plinth seven years later, after the Russian occupation and withdrawal, following its destruction by the Ukrainian army in a drive to erase all Russian symbols and reassert Ukrainian identity. (11/2024)
Monument to the fallen soldiers of WW2 in the cemetery of the abandoned village of Kupovate in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. (11/2025)
Teachers and students take refuge in a shelter during an air raid alert in the radiation contaminated village of Radinka, situated few kilometres outside the Chernobyl exclusion zone. (11/2024)
Vladik and Igor breaking an iced up puddle in the garden of their house in the radiation contaminated village of Radinka, situated a few kilometres outside the Chernobyl exclusion zone.
A teacher takes a classroom lesson at the school in the radiation contaminated village of Radinka, situated a few kilometres outside the Chernobyl exclusion zone.
The abandoned gym in the school of Chernobyl-2. (11/2025)
A Soviet-era portrait on the stage of the derelict theatre in the ghost town of Pripyat.
Children waiting to be analysed for internal radioactive contamination by Professor Bandazhevsky's team at the Ivankiv hospital. Due to its proximity to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, it has historically dealt with health issues related to radiation.
Igor at the Ivankiv hospital being analysed with a spectrophotometer to assess internal radiation contamination. Due to its proximity to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, it has historically dealt with health issues related to radiation.
Medical records of Chernobyl hospital patients in the director's office.
A lone member of the audience waiting for the start of a concert in a small theatre at the House of Culture in Chernobyl. Concerts, recitals, and conferences help to keep the tiny population entertained.
Maria Semenyuk, who died on 17 May 2016 at the age of 78, buys a bottle of gas (propane) from a vendor who sells throughout the Chernobyl exclusion zone.
Rusting cranes in the abandoned commercial port of Chernobyl
A worker sandblasting radioactive scrap metal in a warehouse where contaminated metals from Chernobyl are recycled.
A resident walks through the main square passing the monument of the Third Angel created by the Ukrainian artist Antoly Haidamaka to honor the lives that were lost in the Chernobyl disaster and constructed to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the explosion. (11/2024)
The entrance arch, overgrown by vegetation, of the abandoned town of Polesskoye (Poliske) in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.