"Drunk Russians and sleep on the tables". Surviving occupation: memories from Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant

In early April 2022, 50 employees of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant gathered at its entrance to raise the Ukrainian flag. It was taken down by the Russian military on the second day of the full-scale invasion, immediately after the occupation of the plant.

Some of the employees who came to work the night shift on February 23, instead of 12 hours, continued to work at gunpoint for the entire 36 days of the occupation. For their efforts to prevent a repeat of the events of 1986, on the anniversary of the Chornobyl tragedy, the President awarded them the Order of Courage.

Oleksandr Cherepanov was one of the workers who survived the occupation of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. In an interview with hromadske, he spoke about the occupation of the plant, the risk of a man-made disaster, his fears, and how he feels a year after the events.

I didn't think Russia would attack

Oleksandr has been working in a workshop where liquid radioactive waste is processed for more than 18 years. It is cemented, packed in barrels, and sent for disposal. He is originally from the Urals. His parents came to Ukraine during the liquidation of the Chornobyl accident.

In early 2022, Oleksandr reacted to the news of a possible invasion like most Ukrainians — he listened, but did not believe in a Russian attack.

"I assumed that something would happen in Donbas. But I never thought that the Russians would go further," he says.

In February, he heard on the news that the Russian military was conducting exercises in Belarus. Chornobyl NPP employees used to take a train from Slavutych via this country. However, these rumors did not bring any noticeable changes to the facility's activities. According to Oleksandr, the quarantine had a greater impact on his work.

We realized that no one would come in to change us

Oleksandr Cherepanov's night shift began at 8 p.m. on February 23 and was supposed to last 12 hours. But the next day, he called his family to say that he would not be coming home.

"After 5 a.m., the radio reported that Russian troops had entered the territory of Ukraine. The shift supervisor said that the enterprise was switching to emergency mode. This meant stricter control and constant rounds. We realized that no one would replace us as the train did not leave Slavutych."

At 7 a.m., the shift supervisor ordered the staff to go down to the bomb shelter. The supervisors and senior foremen stayed behind as some equipment could not be left unattended.

"There was a certain panic in the hearts of each of us. We did not understand what would happen to us. The Russians were walking around here like they owned the place. And we were fulfilling our duties. Then one of the National Guardsmen who guarded the facility came down to the bomb shelter: ‘The plant is under Russian control. We are laying down our arms because we have nowhere to go’."

In front of the administration building, negotiations between the Russians and the Ukrainian management of the plant were taking place at gunpoint with tanks and armored personnel carriers.

"Afterwards, the shift supervisor said that we were only following his commands. That is, we were subordinate to Ukraine."

There were six of them in the shop where Oleksandr works.

"After some time, we stopped processing radioactive waste. The warehouses were full. We could not take it out. We monitored the condition of the equipment and waste in the tanks."

Above all, I craved bread

At night, we stayed wherever we could. Some of us stayed in the sanitary room, where workers changed clothes and left their belongings. Others put boards on chairs. Some had to sleep on tables.

We slept for 3-4 hours. Oleksandr sometimes dreamed that he was walking through the plant with his colleagues, and that the Russians were gone.

We went to the dining hall once or twice a day. Rarely anyone dared to go to dinner in the dark. Because the occupiers had weapons and often drank. In four days, they ran out of bread and dairy products. But there were vegetables, fruits, and meat. The portions were getting smaller so they had to eat sparingly. Most of all, the workers wanted bread.

"We couldn't eat without it. Then there was a rotation of some of the plant's employees, during which yeast was brought. The girls in the dining room baked buns. They were delicious," Oleksandr smiles for the first time during the conversation.

In over a month, he lost eight kilograms. He says that considering his weight of 110 kilograms, it was actually a good thing.

"What I had was a sense of moral exhaustion," he admits.

According to Oleksandr, every day was like the previous one. People started to get lost in time. We talked to our colleagues and came up with scenarios on how to get out of the plant and run away through the forests. We listened to the news as the national telethon was on the radio the whole time. That's how a month passed.

"I heard the voice of the little ones — it was hard"

Oleksandr realized that the occupiers were capable of blowing up the plant. But he was afraid of something else — that something would happen to his family.

"I did not concentrate on thoughts of death. What would it change? I had to do my job and that was it," he explains.

He called his family from his cell phone, making sure that the occupiers do not see him.

"And then the mobile connection disappeared. We called from landlines to landlines. Those relatives who had no landline at home came to the Chornobyl NPP office in Slavutych."

Sometimes his wife would bring the children to these phone calls. The couple has four children: 17, 15, 13 and 8 years old.

"I heard the voices of the little ones, and it got hard. The children would ask: ‘Dad, when are you coming back?’ And I didn't know what to say."

On March 20, when the rotation of some of the plant's employees took place, Oleksandr did not go. He consulted with his wife, who was in favor of him staying at the station.

"The situation in the city was even worse than at the plant. Of course, we slept on nightstands and tables. But we had a roof, food, and hot water. In Slavutych, however, food was running out, missiles were flying, and it was cold in the buildings. The family could have gone abroad. But my wife said that she and the children would not go anywhere without me," the man says.

All Russian units looted something

Oleksandr Cherepanov says that the Russian military could have checked the documents of Chornobyl workers, but did not bother them.

"There was an agreement with the Russian military leadership that they would not interfere with our work and would not bother us. The enterprise is critical, anything can happen, so the staff must move freely to their workplaces," the man explains.

Oleksandr saw the Russians looting.

"They were taking everything into the APCs: carriers, grinders, old heaters. They stuffed the vehicles with stuff. But they are stupid: they stole an electric kettle and left the stand for it. There were riot police from Bryansk, Buryats, the Russian Guard, a special security unit, and the regular army. All the units that came in were pilfering something."

Oleksandr says that the workers were worried that the occupiers would inflict something bad.

"They were not specialists. Initially, they didn't even have dosimeters. We received reports to be careful because they could plant mines. When the generators lost power, there was also a possibility of an accident at the storage facility because there was no water supply for cooling."

To make the occupiers interfere less with the plant's work, the workers scared and confused them. Sometimes they made fun of them.

"My manager and I were passing by the Russians. He speaks for them to hear: "Did you take your pills?" – "I did, did you?" – "No, you took mine." – "Well, you're old, and I still want to have children." It was amusing to see their eyes bulging. But there were several FSB officers. We also tried to scare them with radiation. They said: ‘Don't bullshit us, we know it all’," Cherepanov continues.

On the way to the canteen, a broken door was seen

Oleksandr says he will not forget three things from that period: the day the Chornobyl NPP was seized, the moment the flag was raised over the plant, and the day he returned home.

"We were preparing for the second rotation. There were talks that all employees would be replaced, no one would stay. It was already known that the Russians had been driven out of Hostomel. But we did not understand what would happen at the Chornobyl NPP when the fighting ended.

On March 31, in the morning, the shift supervisor said that the National Guard was leaving. We were forbidden to leave our workplaces. And then it became known that the Russians were also leaving. At 3 p.m. we were allowed to go to lunch, but they were gone.

 We — more than 50 people — were left alone. The territory was bare. We asked each other: ‘What are we going to do now?’" Oleksandr recalls the workers' confusion.

Then there was a clearing operation, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine came in.

One of the workers took the Ukrainian flag, which the Russians removed on the second day of the occupation, home during his rotation. We had to find another one. The shift manager asked us to look everywhere. We found five flags. On April 2, one of them was solemnly raised to the Ukrainian anthem.

"There was a sense of pride. And that we were about to be home," Cherepanov describes his emotions.

All the workers of the longest shift were awarded the Order for Courage. Cherepanov, along with other shift workers, returned home on April 9.

10-day shift at the plant

Oleksandr told only his wife about his return home. She met him in a square in Slavutych. He called his parents from her phone. When his mom said, "Hi, Halia," he answered: "Mom, it's me".

The children knew that they would have guests that day. Their mother did not say who exactly. She only asked them to get ready. When Oleksandr entered the apartment, the children wouldn’t let go of him.

"When that happens, you start to cry involuntarily," he happily recalls.

 He says he ate the most delicious home-cooked meals that day: pizza and soup.

Oleksandr Cherepanov says that nowadays the work schedule has become more difficult. Before the Great War, a shift lasted 12 hours, and it took 45 minutes to get to work, which ran through the territory of Belarus, by train. Now the plant switched to a shift schedule. The plant operated like this for about two years after the 1986 accident.

"Now we work for 10 days at a time. Four days of day shift, four day of night shift. Two days are spent on the road. Then we rest for the same amount of time," says Oleksandr.

His wife also works at the Chornobyl NPP. They take turns going to work.

"I come home, and she leaves tomorrow. We hardly see each other. The children don't see us for long either," Cherepanov says.

He admits that after the occupation he began to view life differently.

"I started to appreciate my family and wife even more. We try to spend time together. We realized that we shouldn't put our lives on hold."

Oleksandr believes in Ukraine's victory.

"We learned how to shoot even with a stick, how to take tanks with our hands. We could be destroyed, but not broken. We will restore the country. The hardest thing will be to squeeze out the rot that has turned on a dime and remained here."