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Open Image ModalSunlight shines through the Chernobyl forest in the exclusion zone. \n (credit:Arthur Bondar)
(02 of27)
Open Image ModalA panoramic view from the bridge in Karpilivka village (5km from the zone). (credit:Arthur Bondar)
(03 of27)
Open Image ModalA view of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant through the power lines. \n (credit:Arthur Bondar)
(04 of27)
Open Image ModalPripyat City, where 50,000 people (of 134 different nationalities, including 17,000 children) were evacuated to Kiev using 1,100 busses on April 17, 1986. \n (credit:Arthur Bondar)
(05 of27)
Open Image ModalMost of the highly polluted metal, such as radiators, tubes, and wires, were stolen for scrap metal. Hunters stole wherever they could, in both private and government houses and flats. This is a house in Chernobyl city. \n (credit:Arthur Bondar)
(06 of27)
Open Image ModalA frame from the biological film that was shown in the school in the exclusion zone during Soviet times. The caption says \"The leaves of the plants faded and wilted.\"\n (credit:Arthur Bondar)
(07 of27)
Open Image ModalIncredible doses of radiation were absorbed by nature and soil. Nowadays it is possible to see some mutation in wild nature. \n (credit:Arthur Bondar)
(08 of27)
Open Image ModalWild nature takes everything that people left behind. These are the ruins of the excavated houses in Teremzy village. (credit:Arthur Bondar)
(09 of27)
Open Image ModalAn excavated house in Teremzy village in the exclusion zone. Before 1986, young people came here to rest and dance at the disco. Disaster changed everything. (credit:Arthur Bondar)
(10 of27)
Open Image ModalWhat people cook and eat here is grown by their own hands. \n (credit:Arthur Bondar)
(11 of27)
Open Image ModalSelf-settlers built new houses in the Exclusion Zone. (credit:Arthur Bondar)
(12 of27)
Open Image ModalLavrienko Vasyl Antypovych came back to the zone with his wife Motrena Nykolaevna and her mother Kondratenko Keteryna Antonova, who died in October 2010. They returned to their native village Teremzy one year after the tragedy. (credit:Arthur Bondar)
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Open Image ModalOld wells with contaminated water were closed. (credit:Arthur Bondar)
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Open Image ModalIt is strictly prohibited to fish in the zone, but people chose to do so in order to feed their families. (credit:Arthur Bondar)
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Open Image ModalHuge fishes live in the cooling reservoir of Chernobyl\'s nuclear plant. \n (credit:Arthur Bondar)
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Open Image ModalOld boat close to the port in the exclusion zone in the village of Teremzy. Ships from all over Ukraine visited the port before the tragedy. (credit:Arthur Bondar)
(17 of27)
Open Image ModalFishermen come back to their homes on the frozen river in Straholessie village. (credit:Arthur Bondar)
(18 of27)
Open Image ModalPeople who live in the villages close to the zone still remember the day of the tragedy. (credit:Arthur Bondar)
(19 of27)
Open Image ModalA couple\'s portrait made one year after the tragedy upon their return in 1987. (credit:Arthur Bondar)
(20 of27)
Open Image ModalPillows on the bed in one of the houses in Gubin village (1km from the exclusion zone). (credit:Arthur Bondar)
(21 of27)
Open Image ModalA view on an empty street from one of the rooms in hotel \"Pripyat\" in Chernobyl city. (credit:Arthur Bondar)
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Open Image ModalMost of the people who live in the villages around the Zone have diseases caused by radiation. Most of them are old, and their level of mortality is really high. Ulyana Prokopovna was the oldest woman in Straholesie village, near the Exclusion Zone. She was 96 years old. (credit:Arthur Bondar)
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Open Image ModalA portrait and family pictures on the wall in one of the houses in Medvin village (300 meters from the zone). (credit:Arthur Bondar)
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Open Image ModalA part of a monument in the museum of Chernobyl\'s tragedy in Kiev. (credit:Arthur Bondar)
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Open Image ModalEaster in Chernobyl. According to Ukrainian Christian rules, priests and servants go around the church three times, and after that they go to people to sanctify their food. (credit:Arthur Bondar)
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Open Image ModalAleksander lives very close to the fence of the zone in Gornostaypol village. He stands close to the fence and tells stories of how he went into the zone to hunt, fish or pick mushrooms. He knows every yard because he worked as a driver for many years inside the zone. Aleksander died this year. \n (credit:Arthur Bondar)
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Open Image ModalDespite all of the prohibitions and punishments, people will remain living in the zone. (credit:Arthur Bondar)