Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, as part of her visit to Ukraine, visited the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and Pripyat. This was reported by Tsikhanouskaya’s Office.
She stressed that the memory of Chernobyl carries particular significance today against the backdrop of Russian aggression, the occupation of the Chernobyl exclusion zone during the first days of the full-scale war and nuclear blackmail, including through the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus.
“To see the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and Pripyat with my own eyes was a very difficult and emotional experience. The empty streets of Pripyat, abandoned homes, schools and children’s toys — all of this is a silent reminder of how quickly ordinary peaceful life can be interrupted. 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 Chernobyl. We took part in Chernobyl recovery programmes through which families in different countries welcomed us and helped us restore our health. I will never forget this solidarity and assistance.
In Pripyat and Chernobyl, you feel especially strongly how important it is to protect peace, freedom and human life. And how dangerous it becomes when power is in the hands of people for whom there are no boundaries, no morality and no responsibility.
Today, when Russia is waging war against Ukraine and using nuclear blackmail as a tool of pressure, the memory of Chernobyl once again reminds us how dangerous lies, silence and indifference to people’s fate can be. Belarusians know the cost 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 and nuclear threats”, Tsikhanouskaya said.
