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Chornobyl’s surviving ‘liquidators’ return 40 years after nuclear disaster

About 600,000 soldiers, firefighters, engineers, miners and medics cleaned up after the explosion of the Soviet Union’s Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

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Workers who helped clean up the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster honour their fallen comrades. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

By AFP and AP

Published On 26 Apr 202626 Apr 2026

Ukraine is marking 40 years since the explosion at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster, with survivors of the cleanup operation returning to the site amid renewed debate over its human and environmental toll.

At 01:23 on April 26, 1986, a botched safety test triggered a catastrophic blast in reactor four at the Chornobyl plant in northern Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union.

The explosion tore through the building and sent an enormous plume of radioactive smoke into the atmosphere.

Nuclear fuel burned for more than 10 days as helicopters dumped thousands of tonnes of sand, clay and lead in a desperate bid to smother the fire.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) later blamed “severe deficiencies in the design of the reactor and the shutdown system” as well as violations of operating procedures.

Radiation heavily contaminated large areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, before spreading across Europe.

About 600,000 “liquidators”- soldiers, firefighters, engineers, miners and medics – were mobilised from across the Soviet Union over the next four years to contain and clean up the disaster.

Their tasks ranged from flying above the exposed core to wash and seal it, to scrubbing radioactive dust from buildings and roads, burying poisoned machinery, clearing forests and even hunting animals to slow the spread of contamination.

Many had little understanding of the dangers they faced. Before the anniversary, a group of liquidators from Ukraine’s Poltava region returned to Chornobyl – or Chornobyl in Ukrainian – for a day’s visit to the site where they once worked in hastily issued uniforms and improvised protective gear.

They spoke of duty carried out without hesitation, the loss they endured, and of a catastrophe that continues to haunt Ukraine.

The nearby city of Pripyat, once home to 48,000 people, remains a decaying ghost town inside an exclusion zone, spanning thousands of square kilometres in northern Ukraine and neighbouring Belarus.

Once open to tourists, the area has been closed since Russia’s invasion in 2022, leaving nature to reclaim the landscape and rare species, such as endangered Przewalski’s horses, to roam among the ruins.

Oleksii Lebedynets, 65, served in the military from 1986 to 1991, building fences in contaminated areas. He suffered from headaches for the rest of his life. Returning now, he stopped at Pripyat, the nearby city for Chornobyl’s workers that has been abandoned since the accident. “It’s heartbreaking to see Pripyat now,” he said. “I remember those houses when they were full of life, and now everything is overgrown and in ruins. It was such a beautiful city.” [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

Stanislav Tolumnyi, 65, left, and Mykola Chudak, 66, walk with fellow workers who helped clean up contamination from the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear disaster, in the nearby abandoned town of Prypiat. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

Bumper cars sit idle at an overgrown amusement park in Pripyat, Ukraine, a town left abandoned following the nearby 1986 Chornobyl nuclear disaster. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

Anatolii Prylipko, 66, first arrived nine days after the accident and drove a fire truck for a month, working two-hour shifts to limit his exposure. He initially was unaware of the risks but suffered a health crisis in 1990 and couldn’t work for a year. Returning now for the first time since that deployment, he found the landscape disorienting, with villages erased and the reactor sealed under protective layers. “Back then, the whole place was packed: machinery, helicopters, they were everywhere,” he said. “The road to Kyiv was so crowded you couldn’t pass anyone.” [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

Volodymyr Vechirko, 62, one of the workers who helped decontaminate the area around the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant after the 1986 accident, rides in a bus with fellow workers for a visit to the region ahead of the 40th anniversary of the disaster in Chornobyl, Ukraine. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

In summer 1986, Anatolii Krutik, 63 was deployed as part of an army battalion to fence off contaminated territory and designate “exclusion zones”. He first went to villages in what is now Belarus, which also received heavy radioactive fallout, before he headed to Chornobyl to clean areas around remaining reactors that were still running. At the time, he said, there was little sense of fear. “No one really thought about it. We didn’t know what it was this invisible enemy,” he said, adding his comrades saw it simply as their duty after being mobilised. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

Paintings of deer decorate a wall in the abandoned town of Prypiat, Ukraine, near the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

Viktor Hluhovtsov, 66, was sent to Ukraine and Belarus, where large areas had to be fenced off due to radiation in the soil and abandoned buildings. With dark humor, he jokes about his many illnesses. “As my wife says, I have a whole bouquet of ailments,” he says. After being hospitalised for weeks this year, he recovered and said he hopes to see Ukraine push back the Russian invasion. “The doctors didn’t know what to do with me, but thank God I survived,” he said. “Now I just hope to live long enough to see the end of this war – long enough to see victory.” [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

Volodymyr Vechirko, 62, was sent to Chornobyl in summer 1986 to, clear away topsoil, clean buildings and make the other still-functioning reactors on the site safe. He has been ill for much of his life, which he attributes to working at the disaster site, including chronic dizziness, weakness and frequent pain. Because of his poor health, he said, he lost touch with colleagues from that time. “Being back here now, the emotions are overwhelming,” he said. “It’s incredibly sad to compare what this place was to what it is now.” [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

In 1989 Anatolii Taranenko, 62, was a security officer, guarding facilities and abandoned homes. Deployments were short due to radiation, and orders were followed without question. He has returned several times since, despite the grief that accompanies each visit. “Back then, that was just how it was: If you were needed, you went,” he said. He said he still is treated for health problems at a veterans hospital in Poltava and does his best to stay fit. “We are military people – once a soldier, always a soldier. That’s how I live my life. You have to hold yourself together,” he said. “You can’t just give up.” [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

Serhii Buriak, 60, served in a special Interior Ministry unit in 1988, patrolling Pripyat and nearby areas to guard against looting. His duties included securing abandoned buildings. He said his return visit reconnected him with the sense of duty he felt, while many liquidators still struggle for recognition. “Returning here after 40 years is a massive adrenaline rush for me. It brings back so many memories of my youth and what life was like during those times,” he said. “It was important for me to come back to remember those years and to show my son where I fulfilled my duty to my country.” [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

Workers who were sent to clean up contamination from the 1986 Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident, pass through a radiation inspection point, at the plant in Chornobyl, Ukraine. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

Mykola Chudak, 66, a firefighter, served for six months, beginning in November 1986, working within 10 kilometers (6 miles) of the plant. He focused not on his own role but on the first responders who acted immediately, saying they prevented a far greater catastrophe, often at the cost of their own lives. His service was extended because of a lack of replacements, and years later he was forced into early retirement due to disability. For him, Chornobyl carries both personal and national significance. “Ukraine must always be grateful to the heroes of Chornobyl,” he said. “Being back here, my first feeling is one of immense gratitude for the sacrifice made by my comrades. In many ways, the independence of Ukraine was born on April 26, 1986, in Chornobyl. Without their heroism, an independent Ukraine might not even exist today.” [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

Workers who helped clean up contamination from the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident place flowers at a monument at the facility in Chornobyl, Ukraine. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

From May to September 1986, Oleksii Harbuz, 72, a medical officer and dentist, treated patients while his unit worked on decontamination. He also worked in Belarus, which put him close to the human costs of the disaster. Returning for the first time in decades, he recalled colleagues who have since died and the bonds formed among survivors. “This 40th anniversary represents both a deep tragedy and a vital chance to reunite with my brothers-in-arms,” he said. “So many of our colleagues have passed away over the years, but those of us remaining hold on. Being back here for the first time in 40 years is overwhelming. I feel a deep sense of pain, and it brings tears to my eyes. It is good that we can meet like this.” [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

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