Chernobyl Disaster: Couple Marries Amid Nuclear Crisis

They married in Pripyat as a major accident was unfolding nearby. Iryna Stetsenko was 19 and training to be a teacher. Her husband, Serhiy Lobanov, was 25 and worked as a power plant engineer.

Night of the explosion

Shortly after midnight they heard a loud rumble. Windows shook and a humming noise filled the air. They did not know reactor number four at the nearby Chernobyl plant had exploded.

The damaged reactor was about 4km away. Firefighters and plant crews spent the night battling a radioactive blaze. Smoke rose from the site and a glow was visible from a distance.

Official silence and controlled information

Soviet authorities kept details tightly controlled. Radios offered no immediate explanation. Officials told residents not to panic and to carry on with planned events.

The wedding day

On the morning of 26 April 1986, the couple went ahead with their ceremony. They married at the Palace of Culture in Pripyat. Guests noticed soldiers in gas masks and streets being washed with a foamy solution.

The mood at the banquet was tense and subdued. For their first dance the couple lost rhythm and embraced instead. Later, exhausted, they returned to a friend’s apartment.

Evacuation and departure

A friend knocked in the early hours with an urgent message. They were told to board an evacuation train at five in the morning. The departure was announced as temporary, though it became permanent for many.

From the train they saw a bright glow above the plant. Many left for homes hundreds of kilometres away. Iryna and Serhiy went to her grandmother in the Poltava region, about 300km from Pripyat.

Health and family

A few days after evacuation doctors found Iryna was three months pregnant. She later gave birth to a daughter, Katya, in 1986. Decades on, the couple have a fifteen-year-old granddaughter.

The pair believe the disaster affected their health. Iryna has had both knees replaced. Serhiy suffered a heart attack in 2016 after visiting Pripyat. Medical confirmation linking those conditions to radiation is lacking.

Cleaning the site

Authorities mobilised hundreds of thousands of workers to contain the contamination. Helicopters dropped sand and other materials on the reactor. Machines failed under extreme radiation, and some tasks were done by hand.

Liquidators came from across the Soviet Union. Estonian workers Jaan Krinal and Rein Klaar described wearing heavy lead plates. They worked in very short bursts to limit exposure.

Nikolai Solovyov, a turbine hall engineer on duty that night, described a blast and collapsing roofs. Colleagues checked monitors and found radiation levels off the scale. One worker who vomited later died.

Fatalities and long-term estimates

The official immediate death toll stood at 31 people. Two died in the explosion. Twenty-eight died of acute radiation sickness and one of cardiac arrest soon after.

International agencies cited far larger long-term impacts. The IAEA and WHO referenced a release many times larger than the Hiroshima bomb. A 2005 UN-linked study estimated roughly 4,000 potential deaths related to the accident.

Containment and the exclusion zone

Engineers built a concrete sarcophagus over reactor four within seven months. In 2016 a new metal confinement structure was installed at a cost of about £1.3bn. Some areas of the exclusion zone are now safe for short visits.

Hotspots remain, notably the Red Forest. The Palace of Culture and many Pripyat buildings stand abandoned and derelict. Living permanently inside the zone remains prohibited.

War and recent damage

The plant became a frontline site during the 2022 Russian invasion. Russian forces occupied the complex, held staff hostage for weeks, and laid mines. In 2025 a drone struck the newer shield, causing a fire there.

The IAEA said the shield lost its primary safety function after the strike. Radiation levels did not spike, but the structure’s integrity was compromised. The plant still needs constant monitoring and maintenance.

Displacement and life in Germany

After their daughter’s flat in Kyiv was hit by a missile, the couple left Ukraine in 2022. They settled in Berlin to escape the conflict. Their marriage, begun amid the Chernobyl disaster, remains central to their lives.

Filmogaz.com reports the story of this couple who married amid a nuclear crisis. Their experience illustrates both personal and national consequences. It also highlights the long shadow of the Chernobyl disaster.