BACK IN THE ZONE
This is my next mission of aid into the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. I stopped counting how many times I’ve been there a long time ago. I’ve visited this place dozens of times over more than 17 years, first with my camera to document how things have changed and then with medicine, food and basic necessities to provide assistance to those who have remained here.
It’s now the third year of the war that changed everything — even here, in the Zone. The difference is visible everywhere. Soldiers have replaced tourists, and with them come guard posts, trenches and fortifications. Forests, roads and bridges have been mined. This is understandable – the Exclusion Zone borders Belarus, from where the Russian attack began three years ago. For obvious reasons, I can’t show you everything I see through my lens, but I’ll do my best to capture as much as possible, so you can witness what this place looks like today.
CHORNOBYL-2 AND THE DUGA RADAR
My journey begins at the Chornobyl-2 miliary complex, home to a monumental relic of the Cold War – the DUGA Radar. For decades, its existence was hidden behind concrete walls and layers of military secrecy. Today, we know that DUGA was part of the Soviet early-warning network for nuclear attacks – an over-the-horizon technological colossus.
The radar operated on shortwave frequencies that bounced off the ionosphere and returned to Earth after hundreds of kilometers, allowing it to “look” far beyond line of sight. Its rhythmic test signal could be heard around the world, radio operators nicknamed it the Russian Woodpecker.
Testing began in 1982. Despite enormous costs – nearly equal to the budget of a large city – DUGA never reached full operational capacity. When the nuclear disaster struck in April 1986, the project’s fate was sealed. The radar was shut down and most of the equipment was dismantled or looted.
Road to Chornobyl through forests destroyed by fires
Among young trees the silhouette of the former DUGA radar emerges
Entrance gate to the abandoned Chornobyl-2 complex
The over-horizon DUGA radar – surrounded by metal structures with multiple bullet holes
The over-horizon DUGA radar with a car standing at its base – this is the only way to grasp the scale of the radar
Chornobyl-2 was a ghost town even before it was abandoned. It never appeared on any Soviet maps, although it was home to a closed town with apartment blocks, a school, a kindergarten, a club and other public facilities. Military families lived here; children went to school on Kurchatov Street, and films were screened at the club. Once, the place pulsed with life – voices echoed through the courtyards, children’s laughter filled the air. Now, only ruins remain. Inside the buildings lie fragments of that world: overturned desks and chairs, moldy books and notebooks. Fragments of propaganda posters and murals can still be seen on the walls, faded but still legible – reminders of an era when faith in human power outweighed fear.
Auditorium in the community club — in the background a propaganda banner reads “Learn the art of war properly — V. I. Lenin
Gymnasium. On the ceiling and walls, decayed ropes and sports nets still hang, and among the debris one can see a pommel horse and parallel bars once used by students.
A map titled “Life and Revolutionary Activity of V. I. Lenin 1870–1924,” depicting also the territories of present-day Ukraine, Poland, and Romania — marked on the map as the Russian Empire
Covered in dust, the “Ukraina” piano — one of the few that survived — with broken strings and warped keys, bears the marks of time that have forever made it impossible to produce a sound
The biology classroom, where students once learned about the world of plants, has now, in an ironic twist, become part of it — the green moss covering the floor is a reminder that nature always finds a way to return
Mathematics classroom. Above the cabinets, a quote in Russian reads: “Mathematics is gymnastics for the mind” (M. I. Kalinin).
A propaganda mural from the late 1980s, often painted on the walls of state institutions and schools following the adoption of the 1977 Constitution of the USSR. The barely legible inscription reads: “The main guarantee of all the rights of the Soviet person is the power and prosperity of the socialist Motherland. Constitution of the USSR.” In the upper right corner — the appearance of a similar poster.
PRIPYAT
Next, I visit Pripyat – a city that has been haunted for almost 40 years by emptiness and silence, saturated with memories of the past. In 1986, over 49,000 people were evacuated from here. Over the years, water and damp have made everything that remained behind decompose. Wooden furniture has crumbled to dust, books have fused into shapeless masses, and colorful posters have slid off the walls, washed away by rain and time. Buildings have been almost completely taken over by trees, and birches grow from the windows of former apartments – as if nature were reclaiming what was once hers.
Stela ‘Pripyat’ at the city access road. Recently an apostrophe was added to the city’s name in accordance with the Ukrainian spelling.
Entrance to Pripyat
Panorama of the vegetation-overgrown city with the Ferris wheel and the ‘Polesie’ hotel visible, and in the distance — the nuclear power plant
The Ferris wheel, barely visible among the trees that have overgrown the site of the former amusement park
Road sign ‘Attention children’ stands by an overgrown road which once led to one of the many schools in Pripyat
Nature slowly reclaims what once belonged to it. A tree growing through the window of one of the high-rises in Pripyat
Mosaic by Ivan Lytovchenko (1921–1996) on Lenin Avenue in Pripyat — the work of the city’s main artist, who before the disaster decorated its buildings with monumental compositions
The stained glass window from the “Pripyat” café, created by Viktor Blinov, was made using an exceptionally rare and costly technique in which pieces of colored glass were cut into narrow strips and mounted on their edges. This method required ten times more material than ordinary stained glass and has no equivalents anywhere in the world. The artworks depict women surrounded by nature and the waves of Yaniv Bay. Although parts of it were damaged by wind and vandals, it still radiates colorful light, and sunbeams passing through it bring the composition to life with a thousand shades.
Cloakroom in one of the hospitals
Abandoned clinic in Pripyat with the slogans ‘MAY’ and ‘PEACE’
Room of a former medical clinic, with a glass display cabinet still holding jars containing preserved specimens
School canteen with gas-masks scattered across the floor
Workshop
Painted wooden signs depicting symbols typical of the Soviet era: the red banner, the hammer and sickle, and propaganda slogans. One bears the emblem of the “Battle Glory of the USSR,” another shows a gear with an inscription referring to industry and labor, and the third — a round sign with a crossed-out word “НЕТ” (“NO”) and the silhouette of a bomb — calls for peace and opposition to nuclear war. These relics of Soviet propaganda now stand as a silent reminder of the era when Pripyat symbolized progress, labor, and faith in the power of the atom — before it became a witness to its tragic downfall.
Mendeleev’s Periodic Table at the Jupiter Factory
Auditorium at the Energetyk Cultural Centre
BURIAKIVKA
The next stop is Buriakivka – a storage facility for low- and medium-level radioactive waste from the cleanup of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster. It was opened in 1987 and remains one of the most heavily guarded sites in the entire Exclusion Zone. The facility contains 30 massive trenches where soil, rubble, concrete, structural elements and scrap metal from the decontamination efforts are stored. Approximately 1.3 million tons of contaminated waste have been accumulated in Buriakivka. The facility was designed to operate for a minimum of 30 years under technical control and up to 300 years under sanitary supervision. Due to its importance and hazardous contents, as well as the ongoing war, the area is constantly monitored and protected by the military, making entry nearly impossible.
Right next to the storage site lies a graveyard of machines used during the cleanup operations: trucks, transporters, helicopters – silent heroes of the battle against an invisible enemy. Among them stands the Joker – a remotely operated vehicle build to clear radioactive debris from the reactor’s roof. However, it failed on site. The radiation was so intense that it destroyed its electronics, forcing “bio-robots” — human workers — to finish the job by hand. Today, the Joker stands motionless, a silent witness to the desperate attempts to control the situation almost four decades ago. On the other side of the graveyard, I discovered a second storage site that has fewer vehicles, but the atmosphere is equally oppressive.
Buriakivka is not only a waste storage site – it’s a silent museum of the machines that once fought on the front line against an invisible enemy.
Radioactive pipes
BelAZ – dust-suppressing tanker fighting radioactive dust
ZIL-130 trucks stripped of engines and other valuable components
On the left: IMR — tracked engineer vehicle built on a tank chassis. On the right: BAT-M — heavy engineering machine used for removing the top, contaminated layer of soil
Joker
IMR — a tracked engineering vehicle built on a battle tank chassis
IMR — a tracked engineering vehicle built on a battle tank chassis
ZIL trucks
Fire truck, tanks for contaminated water, and fragments of helicopters
Cut fragments of helicopters rest upon the wrecks of trucks
Wrecks of Mi-6R helicopters
Wrecks of Mi-6R helicopters
BAT-M
THE SELF-SETTLERS
Each trip to Chornobyl is a deeply emotional experience, full of warmth, gratitude and sadness – especially when meeting the self-settlers, the last inhabitants of these lands. It’s for them that I bring food, medicine, and small everyday items. This usually takes me two days, as no babushka will let me leave before we have a meal and a chat. And when I bid them farewell, they always give me a jar of raspberry preserves, mushrooms or a bottle of moonshine. But don’t let these gestures fool you — their daily life is harsh. Octogenarian women chop wood, haul water from wells, repair roofs and grow vegetables in their own gardens by themselves, otherwise it would be impossible to survive on a pension of just 2,700 hryvnas (about 64 US dollars).
Time marches on, and more of the Zone’s residents are gone with each visit. To Valentyna, Maria and Evdokiya, whom I wrote about last year, have now joined Hanna, Olga and Ivan, who tragically burned to death in his sleep, likely after accidentally setting fire to his home.
Those who remain in the Zone live in the village of Kupovate. Before the disaster, it was home to around 1,000 people leading peaceful, rural lives. There was a small cultural center, a shop and medical center, as well as collective farm nearby. Today, only six people remain. Among them is Maria, who at age 99 is the village’s oldest resident. She has been bedridden for two years and is the one most in need of help. She is being cared for by her 74-year-old daughter, also named Maria. There is no doctor, no shop, no outside assistance.
Babushka Maria
Babushka Maria (Marusha)
99-year-old Maria and her 74-year-old daughter — also named Maria
EPILOGUE
Life in the Zone passes slowly. Here, the years pass peacefully and quietly and the people, who have been left to fend for themselves, do not know what the next day will bring. Each visit makes me remember how fragile the line between life and oblivion is. In this place, nature and humanity fight their final battle – for survival, memory and the meaning of existence. One day, no one will remain here. Only the trees, the silence, and the traces of human presence.
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Previous reports from Chernobyl and Fukushima:
2024 – CHERNOBYL IN WARTIME 2024
2023 – FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI TOUR
2023 – CHERNOBYL DURING THE WAR
2022 – HELPING THOSE CUT OFF FROM THE WORLD
2021 – THE SARCOPHAGUS’S LABYRINTH
2020 – LOST HERITAGE
2020 – REMNANTS OF THE CHERNOBYL DISASTER
2019 – OVER THE HORIZON
2019 – SARCOPHAGUS AND OTHER MOST RADIOACTIVE PLACES IN CHERNOBYL
2019 – FUKUSHIMA 8 YEARS ON
2017 – ZAPOVEDNIK – BELARUSIAN EXCLUSION ZONE
2016 – FUKUSHIMA: A SECOND CHERNOBYL?
2015 – FUKUSHIMA
2015 – THE ZONE IN 4K II
2015 – WINTER IN THE ZONE
2014 – THE ZONE IN 4K
2014 – OFF THE BEATEN TRACK 2
2013 – OFF THE BEATEN TRACK 1
2013 – ALONE IN THE ZONE 2 – BEHIND THE SCENES
2013 – ALONE IN THE ZONE 2 – PREMIERE
2013 – LONG WEEKEND IN THE ZONE
2012 – HEROES OF A NON-EXISTANT COUNTRY
2011 – REACTOR 4
2011 – LITTLE REACTORS
2011 – ALONE IN THE ZONE 1 BEHIND THE SCENES
2011 – ALONE IN THE ZONE 1 – FILM
2010 – ALONE IN THE ZONE 1
2010 – VICTORY DAY
2010 – CHERNOBYL 3RD EXPEDITION
2009 – CHERNOBYL 2ND EXPEDITION
2008 – CHERNOBYL 1ST EXPEDITION