‘At Chernobyl, everything seemed to be cracking and melting inside’: A former Ukrainian ‘liquidator’ recounts the disaster 40 years later.
25 April 2026
Halyna Kharshenko went to work at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on 26 April 1986, unaware of the scale and severity of the explosion that had just occurred.
The next day, she had to be rushed to a hospital unit where the staff would only approach her in full protective gear.
The next day, she had to be rushed to a hospital unit where the staff would only approach her in full protective gear.