Chernobyl 40th Anniversary Marked by Survivor Reflections, Ukraine Conflict Near Nuclear Sites

In total, 350,000 people were removed from the exclusion zone, while thousands of animals were slaughtered as residents left nearby towns.

Thousands of people have suffered devastating health consequences from high radiation exposure in the 40 years since, including thyroid cancer. Dykun's husband was diagnosed with cancer after the disaster and died from the disease. She said they became hostages of the Chernobyl disaster, noting that in almost every house near them, someone fell ill and families lost relatives to cancer.

Vital soil for agriculture remained polluted for decades, transforming lush forests, rivers, and lakes around Korogod—sources of mushrooms, berries, fish, and herbs sold in local markets—into contaminated wastelands. The official Soviet death toll, given in 1987, was 31.

Olga Mikhalova, who was 15 when she learned she would never return home, said the accident and evacuation changed them forever, breaking family and neighborly ties, and called it a tragedy for many generations she would not wish on anyone.

Most residents from towns near Chernobyl only grasped the disaster's scale when new towns were constructed to house them. Dykun said she was devastated to see a new village built in an open field with no forest or water nearby, contrasting her nature-surrounded home. Maruzhenko, living with strangers after the tragedy, watched the news in tears upon learning of the new homes being built.

Slavutych, a planned city on the western bank of the Dnieper River, was built for those evacuated from Pripyat and now houses around 20,000 people. Mikhalova recalled that realizing they would not return was very difficult, especially for the older generation. Dykun added that silence from Soviet authorities caused great harm, leaving residents completely unprotected morally and physically.

““We believed we would definitely return,” Olena Maruzhenko recalled to The Independent.”

““This irresponsibility of the enemy and the risks for the surrounding world of a repeat of the disaster are very frightening and we are in constant stress and fear,” Natalia Dykun said.”

““The accident and evacuation changed us forever. Family ties were broken, neighbourly ties. We would not wish this on anyone,” Olga Mikhalova stated.”