Tikhanovskaya shared her impressions following her visit to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya visited the exclusion zone, touring the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the ghost town of Pripyat.
During the trip, the Belarusian politician paid tribute to the victims of the accident and emphasized that Chernobyl remains an unhealed personal and national tragedy for the Belarusian people.
According to the opposition leader, seeing the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and Pripyat with her own eyes was “an extremely difficult and emotional experience.”
She noted that the scale of the disaster of the last century is still staggering and should serve as a lesson for today’s politicians.
“The empty streets of Pripyat, abandoned houses, schools, children’s toys—all of this is a silent reminder of how quickly ordinary, peaceful life can be destroyed. How a single disaster can leave a wound that lasts for decades,” she said.
Tikhanovskaya emphasized that for Belarusians, this is not someone else’s tragedy, since a significant portion of the radioactive fallout fell precisely on the territory of the neighboring republic. The politician added that, like many Belarusian children, she, too, is a “child of Chernobyl.”
“We participated in rehabilitation programs in Chernobyl, thanks to which families in various countries took us in and helped restore our health. I will never forget this solidarity and support,” the Belarusian opposition leader said.
The Belarusian opposition figure emphasized that it is precisely in Pripyat and Chernobyl that “you feel particularly acutely how important it is to defend peace, freedom, and human life.”
She drew clear parallels between the actions of the Soviet regime in 1986 and the Kremlin’s current aggressive policies, which threaten global security.
In her view, the cover-up of environmental problems and war crimes leads to horrific consequences for the civilian population.
In Kyiv, Tsikhanouskaya visited the grave of a Belarusian volunteer and the site of the Lukyanivka massacre
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of the Belarusian opposition in exile, arrived in the Ukrainian capital to hold a series of important meetings with the country’s top leadership.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya will make her first official visit to Kyiv on May 25, during which she plans to open a representative office of Belarusian democratic forces in Ukraine and coordinate further steps to counter the regime of Alexander Lukashenko.
