Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum — Attraction in Kyiv

Absolutely amazing museum and a must-see place for all who visit Kiev! Lots of things to see and very friendly and knowledgeable staff. It is remarkable how they could preserve the atmosphere of the period through photos, videos, poetry, objects, letters, paintings, clothes, dosimeters and videos... It with a 3D model of the reactor (showing all stages) and even a life size replica of the plate that exploded. As I was there many sad memories came back. I was 7 when the explosion happened, and my Father, who is now diseased, had a status of a liquidator: with fellow musicians he was forced to give concerts for the liquidators, in June 1986. The only protection they had was some red wine they drank before entering the zone... It was heartbreaking to watch the footage of people going about their life on the day of the explosion when even the film that was used was damaged by the radiation (you see white sparkles in the video: effects of the radiation), and people without any protection shoveling radioactive debris (because no equipment could stand that amount of radiation, and people... well, the people didn't count back then in the Soviet Union. It was heartening to see so many flags (Canadian and Americans were there also) of countries that were helping. And there is a a number of special exhibits in the museum for Japan: a country that suffered because of radiation so much, and so many times... There are photos from Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Fukushima, and even a special...

The Chernobyl Museum can be difficult to find, the directions that I had were a bit unclear and I spent 30 minutes walking around the area because I was looking for the wrong street. If you know where you are going, the museum is located only about a 5-10 minute walk from the metro station exit.

The actual museum isn't that big, you can wander around the whole thing in less than an hour. I had a slight misunderstanding with the lady selling tickets due to the language barrier - she was terribly mean, and screamed at me rudely in Russian because I didn't understand that tickets could not be purchased in advance. If you don't speak Russian, you will probably be better off because you won't be able to understand the offensive things that she says about you to her co-workers.

The museum itself is interesting, you can see the actual documents, photos and artifacts from people who lived and worked in the Chernobyl factory. However, I would recommend getting a headset (they offer many different languages) for an audio tour of the museum because all the displays and exhibits are in Russian.

Admission to the museum cost 10 UAH per person and audio guide headsets cost 50 UAH each. If you would like to take photos inside the museum, you will have to pay an...

The museum had bought to me a sense of wonder at how the people who worked at the plant just fought every other compunction and dealt first and foremost with the disaster that unfolded in front of them. They must have had such an incredibly stark fear and a sense of isolation in the realisation that they, and no one else, were confronted with this mammoth- scaled problem. They employed every ounce of quick thinking to stop and hinder the problem as best as they could with what resources they had at hand so that even bigger problems wouldn't ensue. Then, to follow, the wrongful treatment of some of the men who sacrificed everything.

I enjoyed the museum .I was there a long time because I was very dependent on the audioguide -there are no English labels/captions and there were no fastforwarding options on the device if you wanted to skip through parts. I was disappointed that I was not allowed to see the diorama (two people before me got to see it - and I witnessed the tail-end of it and then I got told 'no, I can't watch it', by one of the custodians, when I wanted it to play it from the start.)...