These strange photos show the ghost city a few kilometers from Chernobyl

Pripyat, Ukraine – There is a silence in Pripyat which is disturbing but also peaceful hondem. There is no traffic or agitation in the streets or on the sidewalks. In fact, there are no cars or people at all in this city.

Pripyat had the deep misfortune to be located just a few kilometers on the road to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in what is now northern Ukraine.

At its peak, nearly 50,000 people lived in Pripyat, an industrial city created in 1970 near the Belarusian border. There was everything you might need, from a grocery store to a restaurant. It was a relatively new city with a dynamic community.

But on April 26, 1986, a disaster struck in Chernobyl.

One of the factory reactors exploded, sending highly radioactive contamination in the air through the Soviet Union and Europe. Pripyat was evacuated the day after the deadly collapse which killed 30 operators and first stakeholders. It is now a ghost town.

Business Insider has recently visited Pripyat at the bottom of the now established Chernobyl exclusion area, a highly radioactive area of ​​1,000 square miles that encompasses the nuclear power plant.

Going to Pripyat was not an easy task. Visitors need a license to enter the exclusion zone, which is about two hours drive north of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. We met our guide at the entrance, which is a military control point. The soldiers examined our documents before allowing us in the restricted area.

Diving in Pripyat through the real city of Chernobyl and after the nuclear power plant is a constant reminder that Ukraine is at war.

The Russian army initially occupied this area at the start of the invasion three years ago, but it is now back under Ukrainian control. There are soldiers, control points, armored vehicles and fortifications everywhere.

When we finally arrived in Pripyat – the old main road in the city is full of nests -de -poule which made the trip difficult – we were on the chronometer. The International Atomic Energy Agency claims that persistent radioactive isotopes in the atmosphere are at tolerable exposure levels but only for limited periods. We couldn’t stay for too long.

We crossed the city, being careful not to get too far from the path that the guide had taken.

A glance around the city reveals emblems of the former Soviet Union on the reverbs and at the top of the buildings. The city was silent – abandoned in all directions. The vegetation slips into buildings, some of which have no more windows. Beyond a Ukrainian military vehicle which was only briefly there and two other visitors, no one else was there.

These photos show how strange she is in Pripyat:

When it was time to leave, we wrapped the car and returned to Chernobyl, where a soldier went through my camera to make sure not to take photos of sensitive military sites.

Leaving, we crossed a checkpoint, where we had to stand in the radiation detector devices. These resembled rectangular scanners of an airport. These devices checked our clothes, shoes and hands for any radioactive residue. To my surprise, I was clean.

However, when I returned to my hotel in kyiv, I washed everything I had with me.