SLAVUTYCH — Residents of Slavutych held a midnight commemoration in the city's central square in the early hours of Sunday to mark the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, honoring those killed and the thousands who risked deadly radiation exposure to contain its aftermath. The vigil proceeded despite wartime curfews and official warnings against large gatherings during Russia's war on Ukraine.

People of all ages gathered carrying spring tulips and daffodils near a memorial that stands close to a row of posters honoring local residents killed in the war. Soft music played in the background as poetry about the disaster drifted over loudspeakers. People dressed in white protective suits and face masks, symbolizing the liquidators, stood in silence holding candles. "Years pass, generations change, but the pain of Chernobyl does not fade," a woman's voice recited.

The April 26, 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was not reported by Soviet authorities for two days, only after winds had carried the fallout across Europe and Swedish experts publicized their concerns. About 600,000 people, often referred to as Chernobyl's "liquidators," were sent to fight the fire and clean up the worst contamination. Thirty workers died within months from either the explosion or acute radiation sickness, and the accident exposed millions in the region to dangerous levels of radiation, forcing a large-scale permanent evacuation of hundreds of towns and villages in Ukraine and Belarus.

Slavutych, located around 50 kilometers (32 miles) from the plant, was built by Soviet authorities beginning in late 1986 to house Chernobyl workers and their families, with the first residents moving in around 1988. The town experienced a brief Russian occupation during Moscow's failed push to seize the Ukrainian capital in the early days of the war. Last winter, blackouts forced some residents to cook meals over open fires in the streets.

Liudmyla Liubyva, 71, attended the vigil with a friend. Her husband worked at the Chernobyl plant and later developed a disability linked to radiation exposure that left him unable to walk. She said it was important to honor those who sacrificed their health, and that Russia's war has revived fears the Chernobyl danger was never fully left behind. A Russian drone struck the arch covering the New Safe Confinement structure in 2025, damaging the shield built to contain radiation from the destroyed reactor.

"When the drone struck the arch, it felt like the world could return to 1986," Liubyva said. "We all — young and old alike — must protect our land, because it is so vulnerable."

Larysa Panova, 67, left her native hometown of Chernobyl after the 1986 accident and began a new life in Slavutych. Before Russia's full-scale invasion, she regularly traveled to the exclusion zone to visit relatives or spend time in the land where she grew up. With the war, access to the zone became restricted.

"I never stop thinking of Chernobyl as my homeland. You remember your school, your childhood, your youth — everything happened there, in Chernobyl," Panova said.