{"id":324911,"date":"2026-04-26T17:48:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T12:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=324911"},"modified":"2026-04-26T17:48:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T12:18:34","slug":"attendees-don-hazmat-suits-for-eerie-vigil-marking-fortieth-anniversary-of-chernobyl-news-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/26\/attendees-don-hazmat-suits-for-eerie-vigil-marking-fortieth-anniversary-of-chernobyl-news-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Attendees don hazmat suits for eerie vigil marking fortieth anniversary of Chernobyl | News World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t\t<\/div><figcaption>Candles were set out within the symbol of a radiation hazard (Picture: EPA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Dozens of individuals streamed into the central square of a Ukrainian city to put candles on a big radiation hazard symbol to commemorate those killed within the\u00a0Chernobyl disaster 40 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Residents of Slavutych show up for the vigil annually despite current wartime curfews in Ukraine. This yr, they donned hazmat suits.<\/p>\n<p>People of all ages gathered within the square, some arriving as families carrying spring tulips and daffodils. <\/p>\n<p>They lined up in a broad plaza framed by Soviet-era apartment blocks, where a memorial stands near a row of posters honouring residents killed within the Russia-Ukraine war.<\/p>\n<p>The April 26, 1986, disaster shone a highlight on lax safety standards and government secrecy in what was then the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n<p>The explosion was not reported by Soviet authorities for 2 days, only after winds had carried the fallout across Europe and Swedish experts had gone public with their concerns.<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\" data-ico=\"factbox_article\" data-track-module=\"factbox_article\">\n<h2 class=\"factbox-title\">\n\t\t\t\tEnroll for all of the most recent stories\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<div class=\"factbox-content\">\n<p>Start your day informed with Metro&#8217;s <strong>News Updates<\/strong> newsletter or get <strong>Breaking News <\/strong>alerts the moment it happens. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>About 600,000 people, also known as\u00a0Chornobyl\u2019s \u2018liquidators\u2019, were sent in to fight the fireplace on the nuclear plant and clean up the worst of its contamination.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"431\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SEI_294699445-d9c4.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-28121115\" alt=\"A woman places a candle in front of a memorial for Chernobyl victims, during a commemoration ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the worst civilian nuclear disaster in history, in the town of Slavutych on April 26, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV \/ AFP via Getty Images)\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Photos of those that passed away were displayed on nearby partitions (Picture: AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>People wearing white protective suits and face masks, symbolising the liquidators, stood in silence holding candles.<\/p>\n<p>Thirty staff died inside months from either the explosion or acute radiation sickness. The accident exposed tens of millions within the region to dangerous levels of radiation and compelled a wide-scale, everlasting evacuation of lots of of towns and villages in Ukraine and Belarus.<\/p>\n<p>Slavutych, around 32 miles from the previous plant, dates to this era. While most evacuees were resettled across nearby districts within the Kyiv region, in late 1986, Soviet authorities began constructing what would develop into town to accommodate staff from the\u00a0Chernobyl\u00a0Nuclear Power Plant and their families. The primary residents moved in around 1988.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"430\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SEI_294715970-5409.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-28121103\" alt=\"People dressed in white protective suits carry candles during a memorial service dedicated to firefighters and workers who died after the 1986 Chornobyl (Chernobyl) nuclear disaster, ahead of its 40th anniversary in Slavutych, Ukraine, Saturday, April 25, 2026. Chornobyl is the Ukrainian name for the city. (AP Photo\/Dan Bashakov)\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Attendees wore hazmat suits and carried candles (Picture: AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Larysa Panova, 67, frequently travelled back to her hometown of Chernobyl to go to family before Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion. But with the war, access to the exclusion zone became restricted.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I never stop considering of\u00a0Chernobyl\u00a0as my homeland. You remember your school, your childhood, your youth \u2013 every part happened there, in\u00a0Chernobyl,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n<p>As music played on the memorial, a lady said: \u2018Years pass, generations change, however the pain of\u00a0Chernobyl\u00a0doesn&#8217;t fade.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Because the war began, town has endured a temporary Russian occupation during Moscow\u2019s failed push to seize the Ukrainian capital within the early days of the war, in addition to harsh winters \u2013 especially the last one, when blackouts forced some residents to cook meals over open fires within the streets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong><strong><strong>Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>For more stories like this, <\/strong><strong>check our news page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Probably the most chilling TV episode ever continues to be near-unbearable to observe<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Contained in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster 40 years on: \u2018We\u2019ll be lucky to be alive tomorrow\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Harry says he \u2018will at all times be a part of royal family\u2019 and claims he continues to be \u2018working\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"share-buttons-bottom\" class=\"share-buttons share-buttons-bottom\"><a class=\"metro-button share-bar-comments\" data-vars-position=\"bottom\" href=\"#metro-comments-container\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Comment now<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-comment\" href=\"#social-comment\"><\/use><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-comments__label\">Comments<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-preferred-source\" href=\"#social-preferred-source\"><\/use><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-preferred-source__label\">Add as preferred source<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n<div class=\"newsletter-end-card accent--news\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-end-card__inner\">\n<h4>News Updates<\/h4>\n<p>Stay on top of the headlines with each day email updates.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Candles were set out within the symbol of a radiation hazard (Picture: EPA) Dozens of individuals streamed into the central square of a Ukrainian city to put candles on a big radiation hazard symbol to commemorate those killed within the\u00a0Chernobyl disaster 40 years ago. Residents of Slavutych show up for the vigil annually despite current [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":324912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20691],"tags":[22722,3893,47590,25125,2842,2650,51051,4989,395,4148,34027,813],"class_list":["post-324911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-40th","tag-anniversary","tag-attendees","tag-chernobyl","tag-don","tag-eerie","tag-hazmat","tag-marking","tag-news","tag-suits","tag-vigil","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324911"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":324914,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324911\/revisions\/324914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}