RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
When Klavdia Omelchenko left her home in Pripyat, she thought it would be for a few days. But the 19-year-old had no idea that the biggest nuclear power plant disaster in history would change her life forever: destroying her health, killing her friends, and leaving her childless.
Forty years after the disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, former residents are still living with its consequences. Former Pripyat resident Klavdia Omelchenko returned to the abandoned flat she once called home, and shared memories with RFE/RL of her life before and after the disaster.
Nearly 200,000 requests to trace missing people have been submitted to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from both Ukrainian and Russian families since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, ICRC Director-General Pierre Krähenbühl told RFE/RL.
Investigators are working to determine what caused a power failure that swept through Ukraine and Moldova on January 31, shutting down vital public services from transport to banking, along with residential heating in subzero temperatures.
