Pripyat, the ghost town 2#  - The Ukraine

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The Ukraine 2019

The story behind the photo:

Pripyat was founded on 4 February 1970 and was built at the eponymous river only about four kilometers far away from the nuclear plant in Chernobyl. Once the city was the residence of many employees of the nuclear power station and their families. The city grew rapidly; the residents were young and relatively prosperous. At the time of the disaster in 1986 lived here already about 50.000 inhabitants, all of whom have not been evacuated until 36 hours after the reactor accident, on April 27. That’s why many local residents were exposed a high radiation. Many suffered the long-term consequences. In the few hours in which the city was evacuated almost no one of the residents knew that he would never return. Besides important documents and the most necessary things which they were allowed to take with them, the residents left everything behind. What isn’t already decayed or was looted, can partially be visited still today in the original state. In many places there are still books, photographs, toys or dolls, which as silent contemporary witnesses keeps on to hold vigil.

From the project "Chernobyl Stories" The Ukraine 2014-2019