What Chornobyl looks like today: a photo essay from the Exclusion Zone
In May 2025, Therese Iknoian shared a rare selection of photos from her 2020 visit to Chornobyl, Ukraine, at the Viewpoint photo gallery in Sacramento, Calif. Now, those photos and many others are available for purchase at ThereseIknoian.com – with a percentage of her proceeds to be donated to the non-profit Clean Futures Fund that helps people and animals in the Chornobyl nuclear zone.
Read below for more about her visit to Chornobyl before it was shut down by the pandemic and then the Ukraine War.
In 1986, a nuclear explosion in today's Ukraine spewed 400 times more radiation into the atmosphere than Hiroshima, devastating the lives of so many. This is what Chernobyl looked like when I visited and spent four days in the abandoned nuclear zone.
What does an apocalypse look like? We see it in movies. We see photos of post-war devastation. But what is it like to walk through? To try to absorb complete destruction? To see what Chernobyl* looks like, I visited the Chernobyl disaster zone in early 2020, nearly 34 years after the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded. That disaster on April 16, 1986, forced tens of thousands to leave their homes in the thriving city of Pripyat*, many more to perish from radiation exposure, and countless others to suffer from disease.
Over four days visiting the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone – known officially as the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Zone of Alienation – I was able to explore abandoned buildings, walk the halls of the crumbling hospital where the first workers were taken after the explosion, peek into THE control room where workers frantically tried to stop the disaster, and climb high into an unfinished nuclear reactor. Although the Chernobyl zone today totals about 1,000 square miles, the central portion where the main city of Pripyat and many villages were is about 30 kilometers in diameter (nearly 19 miles in diameter, covering more than 1,000 square miles).
At entry checkpoints, all visitors receive and must always wear a personal “dosimeter” to measure radiation received during a stay in the Chernobyl zone. And a few tacky souvenirs are usually available, too. Gas mask, anyone?
When visiting Chernobyl, most tours from Kyiv don’t allow you more than about 8-10 hours in “the zone,” on my visit to Chernobyl, we had three nights and four full days to poke around sights, take photographs at night, and truly live and feel what apocalypse looks like.
With the completion in 2019 of the 36,000-ton "New Safe Confinement" that completely encloses the reactor that exploded, the Ukrainian government started offering more extensive tours and talked of transforming the area into a highly touted and developed tourist destination. “Impossible,” said a tour guide. Chernobyl is not an amusement park. It is the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster and a living memorial to those who fought the battle, gave their lives, worked to expose the truth, and to many who still suffer today. Visit Chernobyl yourself as it is today through the photos below.
This sign has welcomed visitors to the city of Pripyat in Chernobyl since 1970. The city has been a ghost town since the nuclear disaster in 1986, but the sign remains.
The once-glamorous city of Pripyat
The city of Pripyat is where Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers, support crew, city personnel, and their families lived. Today, it is abandoned, with trees, bushes, and animals taking over the massive squares and formerly grand boulevards. Even 1970s-era mosaic artwork is disintegrating since some consider it historic while others see it as a symbol of Soviet propaganda and oppression.
Permanent residents in the devastated Chernobyl zone are animals, including hundreds of stray dogs, descendants of those left behind when residents evacuated, were told they’d be back in three days, and to leave their pets. Officials tried to shoot them all, but were not successful. Today, workers and others try to keep the offspring healthy and fed. They love people and look so sad when you leave.
The utter destruction in the Chernobyl nuclear zone made me think of ghosts that likely could be lingering. But since none appeared, I made myself into one in a crumbling stairwell using a long exposure and a tripod.
The formerly grand main square and boulevard, paths, and roads are hard to recognize behind tall trees and thick bushes that have taken over the area. But signposts remain – including this one with the Soviet hammer and sickle.
The swimming complex at night seems haunted, with the clink-clank of something occasionally dropping from the ceiling, without anything in sight. This pool was used by staff for 12 years after the nuclear accident, before it was abandoned entirely, and was reclaimed by nature.
The Riverside Café was an elegant place to dine right on the Pripyat River. You could catch boat rides, lounge in the sun, or take a cool dip. Now, trees are growing through floors, walls are disappearing, and you don’t dare touch the water due to potentially lingering radioactivity. Note the “before” photo on the cell phone.
Scattered around the abandoned city of Pripyat are large Soviet mosaics by artist Ivan Lytovchenko, created in the late ‘70s for the town. When I was there, they were already embattled: Save historic art or let Soviet propaganda crumble? With the Russian invasion that started the Ukraine War two years after my visit, anything Soviet, including any remaining statues of Lenin, considered historic, were destroyed or dismantled. Since the zone is closed, it’s difficult to know the current status of the mosaics.
The Chernobyl exclusion zone amusement park
Recognized internationally as symbols of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster are the never-used rides in the amusement park. The park was set to open for May 1 festivities just days after the April 26, 1986, explosion. But of course, it never did open since residents were evacuated starting on April 27. Today, the rides stand in a rusted state of abandonment, eerily still, creaking in the breeze, and never to echo with the giggles and happy shrieks of children.
What has become the rusty symbol of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster: The Pripyat Ferris wheel, which I photographed at night, illuminated with the light of a flashlight for effect, still creaking wistfully in the wind. We had rare access one night with time for just a couple of photos in the dark.
The Ferris wheel is not alone. A small amusement park with rides sits near the Pripyat main square, all rusted, every one falling apart, none every able to amuse children and adults who had to exit en masse before it opened.
The disintegrating bumper cars seem to smile at you from their place of rest (or, should I say, sneer?). I used a Think Tank Retrospective Pack on my tour to avoid, as advised, putting anything on the (possibly radioactive) ground.
Inside the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
Tours inside the nuclear plant have been offered more extensively since the completion in 2019 of the arched "New Safe Confinement" structure over the exploded reactor. A full plant tour lasts nearly all day and takes you into all corners of the plant that are safe, including the control room where the disaster played out in 1986. The tour also includes education about the disaster itself. All participants must suit up in protective clothing from head to toe and wear masks, and go through radioactive screening both before and after the tour. The huge domed steel structure -- tall enough to house the Notre Dame Cathedral -- was built to last 100 years. After that?...
The so-called “golden corridor” that connected all of the reactors at the Chernobyl plant and their control rooms remains quite “golden” today. The dingy windowless tube seems to go on forever and still features 1970-era linoleum and equipment.
The Chernobyl plant remained staffed when I was there in 2020, as it continued its slow decommissioning starting in early 2019. The final reactor running was not shut down until 2000. Here, a worker heads back to his station through a dark room of machinery. A skeleton crew remains, although the Ukraine War has threatened its safe decommissioning and upkeep at times. Due to radioactive exposure, staff may only remain onsite for about two weeks at a time.
This is what remains of the control room for Reactor 4, the unit that exploded in 1986. It is but a shell – all buttons and knobs were stolen, we were told. You can only stay in the room for a few minutes due to possible lingering radioactivity. Thick concrete walls also surround it.
This is the 1,000-ton concrete lid in a reactor that is shut down – just like the one that shockingly exploded and blasted into the air right out of Reactor 4 in 1986. Those two hams on the plate were the guides – meet Stan and Stan.
Living with radiation in Chernobyl
Radiation is something you live with on a tour in the zone, although where tours go, it is never high enough to do damage for the short time you are there – unless you stayed for more than a couple of weeks and sat on something radioactive ... or did something else stupid. Occasionally, the measurement devices carried by guides or a visitor go off, issuing frantic warning beeps that get faster and faster, meaning you do not want to linger where you are.
One day, a tour member’s device jumped to nearly 500 CPM (counts per minute) – 100 is considered a warning, but you’d need to be in contact with a reading of 100 for more than 430 days even slightly to increase your risk of cancer or other disease, experts say.
At first, it was so strange to go through radiation checks (as I am above) when you went in and out of the inner zone, the cafeteria, or the plant. But you quickly became accustomed to the routine of checking yourself for radiation. Luckily, an alarm never went off for the group.
Touring Chornobyl is a gray area
Although walking the (former) streets of the glamorous city of Pripyat is fascinating, there are sights outside of that area that can be visited, too – some perhaps needing a special "gift" (think a bottle of vodka) so guards turn their heads. From unfinished construction to memorials and street art, as well as a former radar complex, visitors touring the Chernobyl disaster do need guides to get them to these places safely. If you have the "right" guides, you also get to sneak into some lesser-visited places, even after dark. Of course, since the pandemic and now the Ukraine War, there are no visits or tours allowed.
Reactor 5 was nearly 70 percent complete when Reactor 4 exploded. Guards keep out tourists — well, almost all. You just need the right “gift.” Here, a photo on a foggy January day from high inside the reactor’s rusting remains as night falls. Demanded were flashlights and watching your footing quite carefully.
In front of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant administration building (no photos of the building are allowed!) is a memorial to those who died as first responders to the sudden nuclear explosion in 1986.
The cooling tower for Reactor 5 was under construction, too, but was halted. The mural by Australian artist Guido Van Helton was completed for the disaster’s 30th anniversary and was the first street art done by permission in the Chernobyl zone.
Pripyat’s hospital, where first responders were taken
The hospital where the first injured responders were taken is another sight in Pripyat that is visited with more of a wink. First responders’ radioactive clothing, gear, and helmets are all entombed in the barricaded basement there. We were warned not to put anything on the floor in the hospital on our two walk-throughs since there is an occasional radioactive bandage lingering – yup, really. One visit at night was also a bit of wink-wink-nudge, with guides telling our small group not to flash lights around or out the windows to avoid being noticed.
It’s hard to walk the silent hospital halls and not sense the panicked activity there in 1986. Medical equipment, bottles, and charts remain a-tumble in rooms with peeling paint, broken glass, and half-filled ledgers.
Particularly moving are the beds, toys, and children’s furniture remaining in the Pripyat hospital in Chernobyl.
Abandoned ruins everywhere in the Chernobyl disaster zone
Everywhere you look, you see what apocalypse might look like. The trees and bushes continue to take over, rain and weather find a way in, buildings and structures collapse. Meanwhile, the signs of civilization remain, as you walk gingerly through the halls of former schools or where there once were sidewalks or playgrounds. Outside of Pripyat, there was a large residential and office area to service the former “Woodpecker” Duga radar structure hidden in the forests. It was called Woodpecker because when it functioned, it had gave off a strange thumping noise that sounded like the bird hammering at a tree.
Little bikes await their riders who will never return. The area around the so-called “Woodpecker” radar complex was a little town itself, with housing, schools, sports facilities, and community centers.
A school’s music room with a gas mask on a crumbling piano. The gas masks found here and there when visiting Chernobyl are more than likely placed by tourists for photo ops or by unethical guides, since they were not needed to protect from the release of radioactivity.
This is the image many think of when imagining what Chernobyl looks like today. A childcare center continues to disintegrate as you fully sense lives destroyed. Rusty beds line former nap rooms, with dolls and toys scattered about.
Chernobyl town’s Monument of the 3rd Angel nuclear memorial
“And there fell a great star from heaven…” The Monument of the Third Angel sits in the town of Chernobyl, with the angel lifting her trumpet to the sky. It is a simple, stark monument to those who risked everything in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster – at first, perhaps unwittingly. The monument’s name was taken from the New Testament, Revelations 8:10-11: “And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from Heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of water…” Ukrainian artist Anatoly Haidamaka created this monument, and strangely enough, sits just a couple of blocks from where was once one of the last remaining statues in Ukraine of Lenin, which was considered historically protected. That statue has been taken down since the Russian invasion in February 2020, I was told.
Chernobyl Town 3rd Angel nuclear memorial sounds its trumpet on a cloudy winter day.
Touring the Chernobyl zone -- the sight of the world’s greatest nuclear disaster -- remains with you long afterward. There is something mesmerizing, fascinating, shocking about walking a path that looks like you are in a forest (until you look closely and realize the area was once a grand boulevard or a soccer stadium). Same with meandering through buildings that are peeling and crumbling, where you have to look closely past trees winding into openings where once were windows. As you see what Chernobyl looks like today, you ride emotional waves of sadness and shock. This is what an apocalypse looks like.
* “Chernobyl" and “Pripyat" are the Russian spellings commonly used during my visit in 2020. Today, due to the ongoing Ukraine War with Russia, many Russian words have been changed back to Ukrainian, and Russian symbols or statues have been demolished. In my story, I have left the Russian spelling since it was what was used in 2020, but recognize that in Ukrainian, the names are “Chornobyl” and “Prypiat."
Visit Kyiv and Chernobyl: quick facts and travel tips
Note that since the start of the Ukraine War in February 2022, some of this information could be outdated or sites and businesses could be closed. Please check on the current situation before any potential visit, since the country is considered a very high-risk area.
Need a place to stay in Kyiv? We recommend the Salute Hotel. Not only is it centrally located for superb city access on foot, but it is also near an historic metro station. Plus, its odd round shape is quirky enough to be cool, and rooms aren’t bad at all. (Ask for one facing north toward the Motherland Statue for amazing night views!)
Where to eat in Kyiv? Aside from the “secret” Ostannya Barykada restaurant, also consider the Syndicate Bar & Grill brewery for freshly grilled food as well as some super awesome ginger tea. Another trendy stop for a change from Ukrainian or Georgian food is the Drunk Cherry at the base of the Andriyivsky Descent for grilled veggies and, get this, really good BBQ ribs, not to mention some scrummy cherry liqueur.
Research your visit to Europe by looking at all of our articles and our recommendations from personal experience by clicking here. Flights to Kyiv are available from many major European cities, and access to the town from the airport can be done by taxi for very little. If you have cell reception, you can use Uber too (see below, though).
Need cell phone reception? Although some providers, including mine, said Ukraine was included in their international plan, reception was unavailable. Do yourself a favor and go straight to a Kyivstar (“KИÏBCTAP”) store (there is a major one near Maiden/Independence Square) and buy a flat-rate, all-inclusive SIM card. They are quite cheap and will save the day.
Where to get cash? You can get “Hryvnia” at any number of ATMs, but rates fluctuate wildly, so be sure to compare. Also, when I was at Hotel Salute, the lobby ATM limited withdrawals to the equivalent of about USD $8! Although prices are low in Ukraine, that won’t take you too far, so find a bank for ATM withdrawals, although even at a bank, the number of ATM withdrawals will be quite limited. Beware of the little booths or boxes (with a person inside) that are in about every restaurant or store for exchanging money (cash only because USD and EUR are quite in demand there); exchange rates will be less favorable.
How to visit Chernobyl? (Currently, due to the war, the zone remains closed to all visitors.) Chernobyl and Pripyat are only accessible with guides. You can either go with a group or hire a private guide. Day trips are the most popular (but of course are quite limited in sites, and you don't do a plant tour). Overnight visits are also available -- or were. Do your research since many unscrupulous tour companies have sprung up since the 2019 HBO series aired and popularity surged. My guides were from ChernobylTravel.net and were terrific -- ask for Lisa or Kostya. We also recommend Get Your Guide as another trustworthy option; however, any visit may need to wait until the war is over.
Here are several guidebooks on Kyiv and Chernobyl we recommend: Lonely Planet Ukraine and Lonely Planet Ukrainian Phrasebook & Dictionary. A few words of Ukrainian (or Russian) come in handy, especially off the tourist beaten path.
Be prepared for anything. When traveling to Ukraine, and especially Chernobyl, things change, and anything can happen. Don’t leave home without the right travel insurance. We use Global Rescue for emergency evacuation coverage, advice, and travel insurance that offers a "cancel for any reason" option. Be sure your trip to Ukraine is covered!
