#khodemchuk

[ivovynckier]

Firefighter Vasily Ignatenko of Prypyat was posthumously awarded the title Hero of Ukraine.

So was the first victim of the Chernobyl disaster, Valery Khodemchuk.

On 21 November 2025, a Russian drone attack on Kiev killed Khodemchuk's widow Natalia.

Alexei Ananenko, one of the three "divers" of Chernobyl, also a Hero of Ukraine, lived in the same appartment block.

[ivovynckier]

Natalia Khodemchuk, the widow of Valery, the first victim of the Chernobyl accident, died this morning with 45% burns on her body.

Her apartment in Kiev was bombed by the Russians last night.

[thotsimulator]

Deep in the bowels of the Unit 3/Unit 4 Ventilation block is a memorial to a fallen hero of Chernobyl, Valery Khodemchuk, a machinist who was likely killed by debris from the explosion of the reactor that destroyed the main circulation pump halls where he was presumable standing at the time of the disaster.  His body was never recovered, but Chernobyl workers maintain his memorial and leave fresh flowers, candies, and cigarettes.  When you approach the memorial, you are surrounded by an oppressive silence struck by the human toll of the accident.

Valery Khodemchuk Memorial – Chernobyl

Deep in the bowels of the Unit 3/Unit 4 Ventilation block is a memorial to a fallen hero of Chernobyl, Valery Khodemchuk, a machinist who wa

[ivovynckier]

Hildur Gudnadottir's soundtrack for the HBO series "Chernobyl".

Three employees of the power plant were forced to penetrate the obscenely radioactive rooms under the exploded reactor to open the valves.

(One of these men, Olexi Ananenko, lives in the same apartment block as Natalia Khodemchuk. His apartment is also destroyed but he’s reportedly OK.)

They had no time to look for Valery Khodemchuk's body.

(Without this step, the chemical explosion that ripped the reactor apart would have been followed by a nuclear explosion of the 4 reactors on the Pripyat site...)