Four decades ago, the criminal negligence of the Soviet leadership led to the largest man-made disaster in human history. Both during the time of the USSR and today, the Kremlin uses the tragedy at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) as a tool for manipulation. Its mouthpieces attempt to shift responsibility for the accident away from the system: they blame the plant personnel, pose as “hostages of the regime and the KGB” alongside other affected countries, and openly lie about widely known facts, which they label as “Chornobyl myths.”
“A Safe Reactor”
In an attempt to evade responsibility for the structural flaws of Soviet nuclear reactors (High-Power Channel-type Reactor, or RBMK), numerous prior accidents, and the flawed safety test that led to the reactor's explosion and destruction, propagandists blame the plant workers. The propaganda outlet “RIA Novosti” writes: “the nuclear power plant personnel violated all instructions and rules during the testing program, and the design of the NPP reactor itself allowed for an emergency situation in the event of erroneous personnel behavior.” The publication calls the decision to transfer nuclear power plants to the USSR Ministry of Energy a mistake, claiming the ministry's personnel were unprepared for NPP operation. This, the publication writes, occurred even though the founders of Soviet nuclear energy assured that “the reactor is so safe that it can be installed on Red Square.”
The publication “Ukraina.ru,” aimed at spreading disinformation against Ukraine, continues to claim that the reactor was safe: “RBMK reactors are effective and safe. But no technical device is insured against malfunction. The West forced the shutdown of the ChNPP, although it was operational. Chornobyl’s twin brothers are operating in St. Petersburg, Kursk, and Smolensk. The plant could be de-mothballed and restarted, but the West is doing everything to prevent this from happening.”
The Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, together with partners in the video project “How Moscow Lied About the Chornobyl Tragedy. The Language of Documents,” reports that from the launch of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1977 until the commissioning of the Third Power Unit in December 1981, the plant experienced 29 emergency shutdowns. Following that, two accidents were recorded, resulting in the leakage of active water, which led to the contamination of territories. However, this information was concealed. From 1983 to 1985, nine more emergency shutdowns and over 60 failures of main equipment were recorded. Furthermore, a KGB report dated May 20, 1983, stated that the ChNPP reactors were dangerous to operate, potentially leading to an accident.
The fault for the catastrophe lies exclusively with the highest leadership of the USSR. Resources that should have been directed toward ensuring the reliability of nuclear energy were instead spent on geopolitical ambitions: supporting foreign agents and exhausting wars in Third World countries.
“Preventing Panic”
The Soviet authorities tried to “save face,” deliberately concealing the true scale of the Chornobyl accident. This resulted in criminal delays in evacuation and the refusal of international aid. At the same time, the Soviet leadership sent thousands of liquidators to fight radiation without proper protection, and entire families were sent to the May Day parade in Ukraine's capital under radiation clouds. This was because mass demonstrations were an integral part of communist ideology.
Propagandists explain the deliberate concealment of the accident's scale by the USSR leadership as an attempt to prevent panic among the population, claiming that panic, rather than the delay in evacuation, was capable of exacerbating the consequences of the accident.
“The leadership faced the task of promptly assessing the situation and preventing panic among the population of adjacent regions, including residents of Kyiv, Gomel, and Chernihiv. This is because the spread of panic could have seriously amplified the consequences of the radiation incident,” — “Ukraina.ru.”
By concealing the actual state of affairs at the ChNPP, the Soviet government blocked the work of the press and classified archives. An example of this is the list developed by the KGB in May 1986, which included 26 points of information about the accident that were subject to complete concealment from the public.
In turn, the propaganda outlet “Ukraina.ru” attempts to justify the Soviet regime by downplaying the scale of the catastrophe and making manipulative statements about its “unintentionality.”
“Soviet citizens were led to believe that the ChNPP catastrophe was unique in the world, and the blame for this tragedy lay with ‘communist bureaucrats’ who hated Ukrainians, intentionally exposing them to radiation at the May Day parade in Kyiv,” — “Ukraina.ru” publishes.
The Ukrainian Institute of National Memory reports that a KGB report after the May Day demonstration mentioned the need to decontaminate children's costumes, which the children had worn for rehearsals on April 26, 27, and 28 before the parade. The children's costumes emitted a strong radioactive background.
“In early May, the wind was blowing towards Kyiv. On May 1, 1986, according to data from the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, the gamma background level in the capital fluctuated during the day from 400 to 2,500 microroentgens per hour, compared to an average background value of 15 microroentgens per hour… But despite the radiation, the May Day demonstration was held in the city,” — recounts photojournalist Oleksandr Klymenko, who documented the construction of new homes for forced settlers in the first months after the ChNPP accident.
However, the report contains no mention of public safety. The authorities waited until May 5 before officially acknowledging the radioactive threat, and advice on how to protect one's health was only received by the public on May 9.
“To Destroy the Soviet Union”
Pro-Kremlin publications traditionally include a conspiracy theory component, actively disseminating theories that the West used the ChNPP catastrophe to create “a terrifying image of the USSR for its subsequent destruction.” The rumor was, they say, that news of the catastrophe preceded official reports, and while central newspapers and television remained silent about the nuclear disaster, Western media began to speak.
“On Saturday, April 26, this was amplified a hundredfold by a network of anti-Soviet propaganda radio stations funded by the USA and tasked with destroying the Soviet Union. They sowed panic in the hope of causing chaos and unrest, to project the accident of the ChNPP’s fourth power unit onto the entire state body of the USSR,” — “Ukraina.ru.”
The Ukrainian Institute of National Memory recounts how foreign journalists were constantly monitored to prevent them from obtaining objective information about the consequences of the accident, including taking soil samples.
Ukrainians also came under fire from Russian propaganda, claiming that “nationalist structures in Ukraine made the Chornobyl catastrophe the main topic of ‘perestroika processes’.”
“Chornobyl became the trigger for frantic Ukrainian nationalism—after all, Western ‘radio voices’ assured Kyiv residents in the spring of 1986 that the ominous Moscow had left them without proper assistance,” — “Ukraina.ru.”
Ultimately, the propagandists mourn not the lost lives, but the unfulfilled dreams and the squandered future. “Ukraina.ru” calls the ChNPP “a legacy in the form of the most complex and robust engineering infrastructure in Europe, created by the efforts of all Soviet engineering and all peoples of the USSR.”
“The catastrophe at the ChNPP was the greatest tragedy for domestic atomic science and inflicted colossal damage on the country’s image,” — “Ukraina.ru.”
“The UAV Incident”
In their narratives, propagandists constantly speculate on the topic of the Chornobyl tragedy, asserting that all mistakes have been accounted for, and therefore the threat of a new catastrophe is completely eliminated. However, Russian aggression after February 24, 2022, is once again provoking a global man-made threat: Russian drones systematically violate the airspace over the ChNPP, and the hitting of the New Safe Confinement roof by a drone with a high-explosive warhead on the night of February 14, 2025, is a direct act of terror.
Kremlin propaganda, to justify its own aggressive actions, has been spreading disinformation since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, alleging that Ukraine is preparing sabotage at the ChNPP. Russians call the Ukrainian authorities' statements about the Russian drone attack on the Chornobyl NPP “a hysterical fit and Russophobia.” They suggest that Ukrainians are using a fabricated attack as a cover to conceal a real threat at the plant caused by constant blackouts.
“The UAV Incident became an ideal cover for systemic failures in the work of Ukrainian bodies responsible for decommissioning the ChNPP. The information campaign surrounding this strike was launched with maximum cynicism right before the fortieth anniversary of the accident. Kyiv is not only appealing to the pity of Western donors but is also once again trying to push for sanctions against Rosatom, accusing the Russian corporation of ‘technical cover for the occupation’ of nuclear facilities,” — “Ukraina.ru.”
The Russian drone strike damaged the protective arch over the ChNPP's fourth power unit. This Chornobyl shield was erected in 2016 over the old structure built shortly after the accident. The New Safe Confinement was a key barrier that contained radioactive materials inside the destroyed reactor.
Ukrainian photojournalist Oleksandr Mahula showed what the ChNPP currently looks like, including the New Safe Confinement damaged by the Russian drone. The photo report for Suspilne News was taken on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Chornobyl catastrophe during a two-day press tour to the ChNPP on April 22–23.
“They showed us the New Safe Confinement, damaged as a result of the Russian drone attack, the under-arch premises. As ChNPP employees said, the structure cost two billion dollars to build,” — the photographer recounts. — “Now, due to the attack, the confinement has stopped fulfilling 100% of all its functions, specifically the control of air pressure in the under-arch space. That is, it is supposed to control dust and air pressure. A significant portion of the materials inside the structure that were meant to protect against radioactive dust have burned out. Therefore, they now want to repair it. Preliminary estimates suggest it will cost 500 million dollars to restore it to working condition.”
In its report, the environmental organization Greenpeace confirms that the Russian drone attack on the ChNPP’s fourth power unit in February 2025 was not accidental. While there was no radiation release, the shell no longer functions properly. Experts say the strike has undone two decades of efforts to create a safe barrier for Chornobyl radiation.
“It's a huge intellectual achievement to create something that could protect Europe, Ukraine, and the world from what's inside. […] And now the Russians have effectively blown a hole in it, both physically and metaphorically,” — the American publication The New York Times quotes Greenpeace nuclear energy specialist Shaun Burnie.
Russian aggression has dismantled radiation safety measures, creating long-term threats. Mines have become an obstacle to monitoring and extinguishing forest fires, and the exclusion zone remains without international scientific observation. Despite evidence pointing to the deliberate nature of the strike, the global community has yet to impose international sanctions in response to these actions by the Russian Federation.
“April 26, 1986, is one of the tragic dates in human history. The accident at the ChNPP, 110 kilometers from the capital of Ukraine, almost in the center of Europe, is the world’s largest man-made and ecological catastrophe of planetary scale. Unfortunately, the current aggression by Russia in Ukraine is also the bloodiest and most terrible war of planetary scale. Only back then, it was the quiet killing of the people by radiation from the monster USSR, and now it is the deliberate destruction of Ukraine by the devil Russia,” — concludes Oleksandr Klymenko.
Russia’s actions demonstrate its true goal: to hold the world hostage to a nuclear threat and continue to destroy Ukraine by all available means.
This material was created with the support of the British Council’s “Creative Economy Grants” program
Material prepared by:
Topic Researcher, Text Author: Yana Yevmenova
Image Editor: Olga Kovalova
Literary Editor: Yuliia Futei
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