(260426) -- MINSK, April 26, 2026 (Xinhua) -- Citizens lay flowers at the monument for the victims in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident in Minsk, Belarus, on April 26, 2026. On April 26, 1986, Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine exploded, releasing more than eight tons of highly radioactive material. Over 60,000 square kilometers of land were contaminated, and more than 3.2 million people were affected to varying degrees. It remains the most severe nuclear disaster in the history of civilian nuclear energy.
Belarus, itself a former Soviet republic at the time, suffered the brunt of the nuclear fallout. (Photo by Henadz Zhinkov/Xinhua)
