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On the night of April 26, 1986, two explosions occurred at the fourth power unit of the Chornobyl NPP, which completely destroyed the reactor. The explosion started a fire, and the air was contaminated with radioactive substances, the eruption of which was stopped only at the end of May 1986.

After the accident, a radioactive cloud was formed that covered Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, as well as a large part of European countries. Inhabitants of nearby cities were evacuated, about 600,000 people were exposed to radioactive radiation, primarily disaster responders.

As a result of the accident, about 5 million hectares of land were removed from agricultural use, and a 30-kilometer exclusion zone was created around the NPP. Currently, a sarcophagus is installed over the destroyed fourth and fourth power unit of the NPP – a new safe confinement, put into operation in July 2019.

War and Chernobyl: chronology of events

Early in the morning of February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation attacked Ukraine. In the evening, on the very first day of the war, information appeared about a terrorist attack being prepared by Russia on the territory of the Chornobyl NPP. Several DRGs of the Russian Federation wanted to commit a terrorist act at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, to provoke a powerful environmental catastrophe.

Ukraine lost control over the Chernobyl zone – Russian troops seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after invading Ukraine from the territory of Belarus. In connection with this, Ukraine informed the IAEA that “unidentified armed forces” took control of all Chernobyl NPP facilities in the exclusion zone. Employees of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant were held hostage, but the plant continued to operate.

The occupiers were on the territory of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant for five weeks. During this time, information appeared about local fires in the Chernobyl zone, which Ukraine could not put out because of the occupiers. In addition, the station remained without electricity, which is necessary, in particular, for cooling spent fuel. On March 31, “Energoatom” reported that there were no Russian troops on the territory of the Chernobyl NPP, they lifted the siege of Slavutych (the town of the plant’s energy workers) and forced the management of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant to sign a “deed of acceptance and transfer”, in which they noted that for five weeks they “provided reliable protection and defense” of the nuclear power plant. On April 2, the Ukrainian flag was raised again over the Chornobyl NPP.