Efrem Lukatsky, a Kyiv-based AP photographer who lived through the Chernobyl disaster on April 26, 1986, has revisited the exclusion zone dozens of times over 40 years. His images and memories recount early secrecy, the immediate deaths of plant workers and firefighters, and the tens of thousands of "liquidators" who risked their lives in cleanup. The story also covers the 2019 containment arch, the zone's disturbance during Russia’s 2022 invasion, and an unexpected ecological recovery as wildlife returns to the abandoned landscape.
PHOTO ESSAY: AP Photographer Efrem Lukatsky Chronicles Chernobyl’s Silence, Sacrifice and Lingering Danger
FILE - The highly contaminated control room for Reactor No. 4 is seen inside the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, Nov. 10, 2000. Engineers threw a switch at 1:23 a.m. on April 26, 1986, that triggered two explosions and the world's worst nuclear disaster. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Efrem Lukatsky, a Kyiv-based photographer for The Associated Press, was living in Kyiv on April 26, 1986, when the explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant — about a two-hour drive away — changed life in Ukraine. He has returned to the plant and the surrounding exclusion zone dozens of times and carries memories of a disaster that has shadowed the country for four decades.
Whispers, Secrecy and the First Days
At first the news moved only in whispers. There was no immediate official announcement; fragments of information passed quietly between colleagues. Two days after the blast came a brief state acknowledgment that an accident had occurred, but no full explanation.
"There was a metallic taste in my mouth and a dryness in my throat," Lukatsky recalls. "We tuned in to Western broadcasts at night to hear what the state would not report."
Western radio warned that a plume of radiation had spread beyond Soviet borders. People were urged to seal windows, wear masks and give iodine to children; Lukatsky says he put a drop of iodine on a sugar cube each day to protect his thyroid. A neighbor warned of radioactive dust; her husband sealed his clothes in a bag in the stairwell before entering their flat. Some families sent children away. Lukatsky stayed because his parents were in Kyiv.
Life On, Fear Underneath
On the surface, Soviet life went on. Five days after the explosion, Kyiv held its annual May Day parade. Days later a bicycle race filled the streets with spectators. Meanwhile, long columns of buses rolled into the city carrying evacuees from Pripyat — told their absence would be temporary, many left behind homes, belongings and pets that later perished.
About three weeks after the accident, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev addressed the nation but did not fully explain the delay or the scale of the disaster. Information remained tightly controlled; photographers were required to hand over film after assignments.
Into the Exclusion Zone
In the autumn of 1986 Lukatsky first entered the newly designated exclusion zone, a 2,600-square-kilometer (1,000-square-mile) area. Silent apartment blocks stood beside schools, swimming pools and shops, as if residents had simply stepped out and never returned. Pripyat was frozen in time.
More haunting were the people sent to contain the catastrophe. Firefighters fought a fire water could not tame. Tens of thousands of cleanup workers — "liquidators" — removed contaminated soil and encased the ruptured reactor in concrete. Soldiers were ordered onto the reactor roof to sweep away debris; coal miners dug tunnels beneath the plant to prevent molten fuel from reaching groundwater. Many of those men faced lethal doses of radiation in brief periods of exposure.
Protective gear was limited and often inadequate. Teams were inspected and washed down before leaving the zone; Lukatsky says he sealed clothes in bags and discarded shoes and coats after each trip. Photographers and journalists risked censorship and possible arrest; Lukatsky's photos were later shown at an amateur exhibition and published abroad, and his coverage helped launch his journalism career. He joined the AP in 1989.
The Human Toll and Abandoned Machines
In the immediate aftermath, 30 plant workers and firefighters died from acute radiation sickness. In the years that followed, thousands more would die from radiation-related illnesses. Notably, six photographers and cameramen who went in during the first days also later succumbed to illness.
Near the plant, a vast machinery graveyard holds ambulances, buses, trucks, armored vehicles and helicopters used in cleanup operations — left behind because contamination made them too dangerous to recover. Inside the plant, dust hung thick in the air; in the control room, a routine safety test at 1:23 a.m. on April 26, 1986, went catastrophically wrong and triggered two explosions. Many control-panel buttons were later taken as grim souvenirs.
Containment, New Dangers and an Unexpected Recovery
The original concrete sarcophagus built over Reactor No. 4 deteriorated over time, allowing gaps and leaks. In 2019 an enormous arch-shaped shelter, the New Safe Confinement, was completed to cover the reactor and contain the hazard for generations.
But the zone's safety was tested again during war. In 2022 Russian forces entered the exclusion zone and dug defensive positions on contaminated ground, disturbing long-buried material. A later drone strike damaged the protective structure; officials reported no major radiation release, but the episode underscored that the danger persists.
Paradoxically, the absence of people has allowed nature to rebound. Forests have regrown, wildlife has multiplied, and rare species now move through landscapes once defined by disaster. Pripyat is still frozen in time for human life, but animals roam its streets and buildings.
Remembering and Reporting
Four decades on, Lukatsky's photographs document two lasting truths: the human cost of secrecy and sacrifice, and nature's surprising resilience when left largely undisturbed. This photo essay, curated by AP photo editors, gathers those images and memories to mark the long shadow of Chernobyl.
FILE - Remains of the collapsed roof at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, damaged in the separate 1991 fire in a turbine hall for Reactor No. 2, in Chernobyl, Ukraine, Oct. 13, 1991. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - Efrem Lukatsky, now an Associated Press photographer, wears protective clothes outside the sarcophagus that covers destroyed Reactor No. 4 in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, in this undated photo taken several years after the explosion. (AP Photo, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Soldiers taking part in cleanup operations following the Chernobyl power plant explosion rest in a tent camp inside the "exclusion zone" in the autumn of 1986, in Chernobyl, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A security officer gestures to a photographer outside the gates of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in this 1989 photo, in Chernobyl, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
People hold signs reading "Down with the Chernobyl mysteries!" and "Who is responsible for Chernobyl?" during a protest rally demanding the truth about the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident at a stadium in Chernobyl, Ukraine, April 26, 1989, on the third anniversary of the disaster. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - About 1,350 Soviet military helicopters, buses, bulldozers, tankers, transporters, fire engines and ambulances, all highly contaminated with radiation, sit abandoned in a junkyard, in Chernobyl, Ukraine, Nov. 10, 2000, after being used in cleanup operations following the 1986 explosion in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File )(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - Beds sit in a room of an abandoned kindergarten in the deserted town of Pripyat, Ukraine, Nov. 27, 2012, which housed Chernobyl nuclear power plant workers and their families. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - Ivan Kalenda turns away to wipe his tears as he visits his 3-year-old grandson Vitya, right, in the children's cancer hospital ward in Gomel, Belarus, March 19, 1996, nearly a decade after the explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that sent radioactive clouds through Ukraine, Belarus and other parts of Europe. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - Alec Zhloba sits in a children's cancer ward with markings made by doctors on his head following chemotherapy in Gomel, Belarus, March 19, 1996, nearly 10 years after the explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant sent radioactive clouds through Ukraine, Belarus and other parts of Europe. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - A medical worker attends to a 17-year-old girl recovering from surgery to remove her cancerous thyroid at the intensive therapy unit of the Endocrynology Institute in Kyiv, Ukraine, Nov. 30, 2000, nearly 15 years after the explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - Alehandra Lihova, sister of a worker who died following cleanup operations from the 1986 explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, wipes away tears at a wreath-laying ceremony at a monument to victims in Kyiv, Ukraine, April 26, 2004. The monument depicts the plant and its inscription reads "Near the grave, near the Chernobyl nuclear power station, near the dead Prypiat, a tree is the cross." (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - Portraits of Soviet officials covered by radioactive dust sit in a city club in Pripyat, Ukraine, April 10, 2006, where Chernobyl nuclear power plant workers lived and were evacuated after the deadly explosion and fire. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - An investigator points toward damaged Reactor No. 4 inside the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, Nov. 10, 2000. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - A worker checks radiation levels after leaving a nuclear waste storage site at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, March 23, 2016. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - A broken clock hangs on a wall in a school in the deserted town of Pripyat, Ukraine, April 5, 2017, once home to people whose lives were connected to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant about 3 kilometers (nearly 2 miles) away. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - A pommel horse sits in a school gymnasium in the deserted town of Pripyat, Ukraine, April 5, 2017, once home to people whose lives were connected to the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - Bumper cars sit in a playground in the deserted town of Pripyat, Ukraine, Nov. 27, 2012, once home to people whose lives were connected to the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - Praskoviya Nezhyvova places a photo of her son, Viktor, who died following cleanup operations from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant accident, at a monument to the victims in Kyiv, April 26, 2004. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - A dome-shaped shelter covering the damaged reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant is seen on the horizon, April 15, 2021, from the abandoned town of Pripyat, Ukraine, once home to some 50,000 people whose lives were connected to the plant. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - Workers examine the damage to the roof of the New Safe Confinement structure, which was built to contain the radioactive remains of Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, following what Ukrainian officials said was a Russian drone attack in Chernobyl, Ukraine, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - A radiation sign stands near the remains of a vehicle belonging to the Russian military near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, April 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
FILE - An abandoned Ferris wheel stands in a city park, April 15, 2021, in the abandoned town of Pripyat, Ukraine, once home to workers and their families whose lives were connected to the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power plant. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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