a five thirty pm here in the russian capital new with r c that's the headlines nato airstrikes have a once again hit the libyan capital while rebels hope to cash in on their country's rich resources if and when he goes there are warnings that their actions and over zealous support of nato could invite a chain reaction of civil wars in the region. it's almost twenty five years since the catastrophe a possible new radiation leak at the site is attracting increasing concern this comes after the stress of fukushima showed how vital it is to be prepared for the

repeat of a nuclear disaster. and a culture clash an infamous russian group. after winning a state award for one of their works they say what they did was autistic protest critics argue it's nothing more than obscenity and that. ad on the eve of the anniversary of the disaster we bring you a series of special reports from the exclusion zone in ukraine you stay with us. twenty five years ago the entire fifty thousand population over ukrainian sound of

previous lives was evacuated within three hours. the shock would you please step aside and working and you getting in my short thank you they left most of what they had here as they were told they were leaving only for a couple of days but none of them has ever returned go thing they saw people losing their homes around what the poor of which are a lot of nuclear power plants devastated by the explosion. where we going number not sure we need to go to p.t. and supposed office. recently i received a notification to pick up a letter here in three patch the last that's impossible the post office hasn't been working for twenty five years i don't think it's for real. show me. storms range according to the stamps so

this really has come from here you know where this post office is yes i know the ball. to keep. the philosophical stoic all these trees that you see they've all grown since the accident and right now we're going to be passing the house where i was born. the fifth hit. we came to the chernobyl exclusion zone to investigate a very strange story this place has been deserted for a quarter of

a century or recently some people started receiving notices telling them to pick up lots at this post office in crete yet i'm holding one of those here and indeed the stamp here proves that it came from the ghost town. fifty. fifth street frankly speaking i don't know what to look for. any of. these notices have no addresses nor names of those who had sent them. thank you. i thank you no. you're going to be honestly speaking i don't think we're going to find anything here. most of the things that remains here and in the apartments were

later buried. but i knew i didn't keep them because they were very radioactive. stuff. and the rest was stolen by scavengers. so here's a letter which someone for you to send from here. there is a photo inside. looking you. all the times i've been here i've never seen anything like this. this is this is. do cellphones work here. they work at the

nuclear power plant and sometimes they work here. hello hi. lo who we are calling our. homework tonight can i pick a daughter up from kindergarden. scuse me who is it calling i beg your pardon i must have that the wrong number. i don't get it. our investigation brings us to one of pleats kindergartens and this one is truly a horrifying scene most of the things one can see here have been left untouched ever since the catastrophe at the site which gives probably the best description and most dramatic one of the chernobyl tragedy is that children's toys i lay literally side by side with military gas masks.

at the moment of this is my kindergarten i do i used to go here. we will not be used to be many children in p.p. a lot of. specialists from all over the soviet union came here to operate the nuclear power station all the mostly young people but a store and they thought that they were waiting for a bright future books with this book so this town experienced a baby boom and all government but it was almost no one used the gas masks look out there because the picketers strophe happened on a saturday. so they've been kept here and were left untouched. after a couple of ministers what was in that letter you found. there is a photograph inside. plenty here have

a look. i. know but to the proper trickle it seems it was written by a child a small girl. trust me or try there was three i was so glad having received your letter so i decided to reply was my mom got me a new doll she's so beautiful that i'm sometimes afraid to play with her when i go to school in the morning i put her by the window and make a best for her and my evening i love her dearly the weather has already been very warm here we'll be having a holiday soon my parents and i will go to a rally will be inflating balloons and after that there will be a concert in the house of cultural activities my sister will be dancing there even though she's small she's already a great dancer missing you're very much please come and visit us from the summer we're missing you very much please release come visit us in the summer leisure it'll be here when they're supposed to be mentions the first may vents in the

pleaders house of culture and kids from this kindergarten work your former the concert there. when was that letter written is there such a push to all the date on the envelope as it was meant to be sent in to the store just the day before the catastrophe. nothing nobody on the eve of the catastrophe many celebrations had to close for saturday and sunday they always schedule wedding celebrations and children's concerts for the weekend but with even when the tragedy happened we didn't call off the festive events so the living children were breathing the c.e.o. as it was a hard day and the events were out in the open many people were in the parks and i

know that there were weddings in the house of culture in the end we were informed that it was very serious and that we were to go home and pack up for evacuation. may the first was one of the biggest communist holidays in the soviet union the labor day peter's house of culture still has a collection of posters with soviet leaders they were meant to be carried at a traditional demonstration and the stage over here was meant to become a venue for a holiday concert. but it's the only thing they did not talk wistful look at i found it it's a fireman suit. so could it be that it belongs to one of those firefighters who fought the blaze at the nuclear power plants then you hear them salute lina no question for you that most of them

died. and their gear was still radioactive to throw that it was destroyed almost immediately afterwards. the rest of the you know there used to be an amateur theatre here maybe it's there's got to be honest i feel we're stuck with a stick and you got any ideas where we could go next. well there used to be a library here you could check out the rangers profile cards. you know the city was very beautiful work but it was meant to be kind of

a role model for others. like the best place communist society could ever build perfectly planned and constructed. was meant to be a paradise for those building communism. ready wait a minute i found a note inside this picture book it looks like a page from someone's diary. is dated april the twenty fifth nine hundred eighty six we're preparing an experiment at the station we'll be bringing the reactor to a store where we have some heated debates most of us assure that we're doing everything right but still cannot come to a conclusion the times it seems we're talking on different languages can both make it come from nowhere was a confrontation of the word before more workers did not want to keep the unstable reactor an operational mayo clinic up or even the flu from for control to call into conversations and documentation that have been published already from the reactor

was out of control over. the twenty fifth of april the employees were saying that it was faulty. but the bosses demanded that they should finish the experiment you know that they were performing only unstable reactor. they should be in your stomach and i saw a picture and daughters are good with the babylonians our little i joke that we have now finally built it doesn't mean we don't agree of the story. i'm on top of the tallest building it is the best vantage points to see the chernobyl nuclear power plant straight after the disaster it was covered by steel lead cold the sarcophagus underneath it are still tons of radioactive fuel and

deadly levels of radiation but if you don't know that from here it almost looks a life. what if there are those that would know the apartment we're looking for should be somewhere here. do you know where this drawing came from. it appears here several years ago actually i don't know the elevator shaft is open so be careful we need to go this way i don't let's go. i tension a new model here. i turn shannon. i knew my eye tension was rather more than you know hombre it's got. the council of the town i reports it was a usual saturday and it was

a very warm day and we did not feel like studying. after the second lesson teachers were called for a meeting and left us to ourselves at the time we heard that something bad had happened at the reactor. many of the children's parents worked there they talked about what they had heard from them. and i learned that there had been a blaze of a station and several people were injured there were some with the hole but all we could not imagine how serious it was we felt that a fire was nothing to be afraid of at school we were told but atomic energy was the safest in the world. other than the good because. it was still a kid when the tragedy happened the great outdoors with a the rooftop and saw the blaze at the station there was smoke coming out of the building from the explosion radiation levels were already extremely high.

horse everyone young and old was exposed to huge radiation doses. still works. there's almost nothing left here. the most can you look through you are calling maybe there is some information about this person there yes just a second yes that yes i have something he was one of those who was supposed to be performing an experiment at the station which means that during the moment of the explosion he should have been there all of the workers who were working at the fourth block were immediately sent to a hospital as they were severely or radiated from what we could go to the hospital maybe we can find something there. that is a good idea that's the image. of what about his family. i don't know. i have no information on them.

the injuries were different the bullet they did but the majority were exposed to the fourth radiation levels. and received third or fourth degree burns. one patient died of burns. me and the others were treated at elmwood ical facility. and then the abort to moscow. shows with the fourth

level of radiation brynn shock disoriented and the rest. after the injured are being brought here from the powerful arms they are all covered in radioactive dust and. we are receiving strong those disappeared and we are completely i'm ready for what has happened yet i don't believe in all this at that it just cannot be happening this is real hell. what's that what i found inside a patient record card. we need to leave what's happening we are leaving.

i. place. hungry for the full story we've gone to. the biggest issues get

a human voice face to face with the news makers. it should just make your decision quicker the radiation levels are very high here. last. place . you.

just read about us that's the sucky at least tell me what is this cross doing there it's only costs for you it's a protective cross you there are four of them in the ukraine west and they form a square garden just in the south in the east and in the west this is the northern one. so your cell phone works you have a favorite with no there's no signal whatsoever. well then we're stuck. here hold this book any of them used to do and there's a village not far from here. well for three cause they are on the other side of the river a few elderly couples live there till they form they might have a radio phone upgrade if not then at least we can stay overnight.

ok. as we walked through the field i saw a herd of wild horses where they come from beirut they were brought here straight after the catastrophe in the ninety's and it was an experiment to see how they would survive the radiation and their lives grow into a huge population the same happened to all the other animals because there's no people here because when they. all safe walking out of.

the. what is this village who lives here there's a couple of elderly people that live here. they were evacuated out of the class one day why are they here they were so well they came back they resettled here in their own free will oh hello in my free will and you know i was not hello hello they're looking for how do you live here on your own there's no transportation or facilities passport thank you the other provide us with a free bus to the settle you know because there you go you want when we need something from the market it's huge he won some money because how often will run your own house and this is just for them but now it's less often.

this horse is used by everyone in this village when they need to carry on something that you know what. it's not what you want to know the most it was sleep over there near the stove maybe. just about because i will give you blankets and pillows and i'm across the many things will serve on a blanket or something instead ourselves off. at .

i still don't understand me those post notices. you remember the old man who varied as the cross the river. apparently he's opposed to man. and once a fortnight you cruises up and down the river and delivers mail and so you think he did it for. you maybe i don't know who choose me will be somebody else maybe it was a mistake. yes it's interesting a lot as a simple chemistry at first but there's such an easy solution as a police. report from researchers we have seen do you think anyone will ever come back here. i don't know. this is our congregates they built in one nine hundred eighty six it was in temporary they said it was temporary because it would last for

twenty to thirty years now they're building a new one. this one's supposed to last one hundred years and you know it's funny when they also call it temporary means that both you and i and our children will be gone and it will still be standing there after all who will. and haven't looked at these pictures i still don't understand why describe this town as beautiful to me it looks like an ordinary saudi town typical buildings and planning there were thousands of towns like that across the country it was beautiful because we lived here you know i've been having this feeling that you just cannot let go of all that happened here. because if you continue fighting the zone ok how can i forgive it if you. no i would just maybe try talking to the zone. it's not sending me letters in order to think well those i received were not directed to me either. but when you want to see if they were not meant for you. then you would never have

found them or read them in the first place.