Guillaume Herbaut: Saturday Evening in Chernobyl

In 1986 when the Chernobyl nuclear station exploded, the Soviet and Ukrainian authorities decided to designate a forbidden zone around the contaminated area. The range is 30 kilometers around and out from the nuclear site, where villages and cities were evacuated. This abandoned area became a wild region, now a peaceful home to wolves and boars.
Just on the outreaches of this forbidden zone lie a few scattered villages and cities. The law impedes any new economic activity or growth, needless to say, these places are suffering greatly. The robust farms that existed during the Soviet period, bringing in food, economic growth and stability have disappeared. The young people growing up in these towns have no choice but to work in Kiev or the Chernobyl nuclear station, for there is no work for them in their own villages and towns.
Every weekend, the youth of Ivankov, the main city in the third contaminated zone, meet at the Antalys discotheque. Some are only there for the weekend, some are students in Kiev, and for others, they are simply looking for a way to forget their situation in the contaminated zone, where they can’t find a job and don’t see a real future. The mixture of despondence, alcohol, and violence, can be a lethal combination.
Guillaume Herbaut
Via