Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is on a visit to Ukraine, where today, May 26, she visited the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and Pripyat — places forever associated with one of the worst man-made disasters in history. The delegation also visited the fourth reactor of the Chornobyl NPP.
For Belarusians, Chornobyl is both a personal and national tragedy. Belarus suffered heavily from the disaster. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya emphasized that the memory of Chornobyl carries special significance today against the backdrop of Russian aggression, the occupation of the Chornobyl exclusion zone in the first days of the full-scale war, and nuclear blackmail, including the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus.
“Seeing the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and Pripyat with my own eyes was an extremely difficult and emotional experience. The empty streets of Pripyat, abandoned homes, schools, children’s toys — all of this is a silent reminder of how quickly ordinary peaceful life can be shattered. How one catastrophe can leave a wound for decades.
For Belarusians, this is not someone else’s tragedy — it is our shared pain. Like many Belarusian children, I am also a child of Chornobyl. We took part in Chornobyl recovery programs, thanks to which families in different countries welcomed us and helped restore our health. I will never forget this solidarity and support.
In Pripyat and Chornobyl, you feel especially strongly how important it is to protect peace, freedom, and human life. And how dangerous it is when power is in the hands of people for whom there are no borders, no morality, and no responsibility.
Today, as Russia wages war against Ukraine and uses nuclear blackmail as a tool of pressure, the memory of Chornobyl reminds us how dangerous lies, silence, and indifference to people’s fate can be. Belarusians know the price of such a catastrophe, and our country must not be part of nuclear threats or aggression.
I believe that Belarus and Ukraine will together build a future without war, dictatorship, or nuclear threats”.
Joining Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on the visit to the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and Pripyat were Pavel Latushka, Valery Matskevich, and Volha Zazulinskaya of the United Transitional Cabinet, as well as her Advisors Dzianis Kuchynski, Anatol Liabedzka, and Franak Viacorka.
