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Ukraine. Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The Duga 3 military antenna is a huge radar antenna 150 meters high and 500 meters in length with buildings, and was part of the anti-missile defence system that would track any missiles from the USA.
Ukraine. Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The Duga 3 military antenna is a huge radar antenna 150 meters high and 500 meters in length with buildings, and was part of the anti-missile defence system that would track any missiles from the USA.
After the Chernobyl nuclear accident, which occurred on 26 April 1986, the Soviet government created a 30km exclusion zone around the plant and evacuated the 116,000 residents. The area around the plant became a dead zone. Despite being one of the most contaminated places in the world, it is far from deserted.
For the past 20 years, Pierpaolo Mittica has documented what happens inside the area known as “The Zone”. He has collected the stories of those who gravitate to this place: those who have always refused to leave, those who have returned to live there, or the 2,000 or so people who continue to work there to keep it safe.
A derelict fairground in Pripyat, 3km from Chernobyl
Left: workers at the end of their shift, at the bar in the main square in the town of Chernobyl Right: Sisters Hanna, Sophia and Maria at home in Kupovate, in the Chernobyl exclusion zoneHasidic Jews pray at the tomb of Rabbi Menachem Nachum Twersky, founder of Hasidic Judaism, at Chernobyl’s synagogueRusting ships in the harbour at ChernobylSasha and son Igor at home in Radinka, just outside the zone
Left: students during a break at the school of the contaminated village of Radinka, situated 300 metres from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone Right: Vladik, 7, and Igor, 6, play in the garden of their home in Radinka before going to school. Many children in the village have health issues
Left: a tourist holds a cow’s skull Right: an old sports hall in PripyatInside Reactor No. 3 at Chernobyl, which was not destroyed in the blast and continued to operate until 2000“Stalkers” Jimmy, Sasha and Maxim in their apartment in Pripyat. Stalkers are organised like paramilitary groups and illegally enter the exclusion zone to play survival gamesOksana and her son Igor in their home in Radinka
Left: Every year locals mark 26 April, the anniversary of the nuclear blast, with a vigil in the main square of Chernobyl Right: Jimmy and his fellow “Stalkers” at a flat in Pripyat, a town that had a population of 50,000 before the blastThe control room of Reactor No. 2, which was eventually shut down in 1991. The three intact reactors were not closed immediately as the Soviet Union needed the power
Left: A phone booth in the post office in Chernobyl Right: Inside the Chernobyl nuclear power plantThe abandoned part of the village of Radinka
Left: Sasha sleeps on the roof of a building in the ghost town with distant views of the abandoned nuclear power plant of Pripyat. Chernobyl and the infamous Reactor No. 4 are top right Right: workers in a warehouse where radioactive metal is cleanedA selfie from the roof of a building in Pripyat with distant views of the abandoned nuclear power plantThe Chernobyl exclusion zone.
All photographs by Pierpaolo Mittica/Parallelozero Photo Agency
