Iryna Stetsenko and Serhiy Lobanov were preparing for their wedding in Pripyat when, just after midnight, an explosion at the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power plant disrupted their plans. According to Stetsenko, “It was as if a lot of planes were flying overhead, everything was humming and the glass in the windows shook.” Lobanov said he “felt a shake, as if some kind of wave passed,” but did not realize the severity of what had happened.
The couple lived less than 2.5 miles from reactor number four at Chernobyl, which exploded on April 26, 1986. Unaware of the unfolding disaster, they continued with their wedding day activities. Official information about the accident was tightly controlled by Soviet authorities; radio broadcasts gave no details and local officials advised that all planned events should proceed.
Despite seeing soldiers in gas masks and streets being washed down with foam solution on his way to buy flowers for the ceremony, Lobanov only learned something serious had occurred when he saw smoke rising from reactor four. Nevertheless, their wedding took place at Pripyat’s Palace of Culture as scheduled. The celebration felt subdued—”Everyone understood that something had happened, but no one knew the details,” said Lobanov.
By early Sunday morning following their marriage, friends urged them to board an evacuation train out of Pripyat due to radioactive contamination. As Stetsenko recalled running barefoot through puddles in her wedding dress to retrieve clothes from her mother’s apartment before leaving town: “I was in a wedding dress and I was running barefoot through the puddles.” The official announcement described this evacuation as temporary; however, she later reflected: “We left for three days, but ended up going for our entire lives.”
The immediate death toll from Chernobyl is officially listed at 31 people killed by explosion or acute radiation sickness within weeks; estimates on long-term health impacts vary widely. After relocating about 300km away with family members monitoring evacuees for radiation exposure—and learning she was pregnant—Stetsenko received medical advice regarding possible risks but ultimately gave birth to a healthy daughter.
Forty years later and now living in Berlin after fleeing further conflict during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Stetsenko says her marriage has endured despite challenges stemming from both nuclear disaster and war: “After 40 years I can say with certainty that we are like a thread with a needle… We do everything together.”
