April 26th, 1986 will forever remain a painful memory for a lot of Ukrainians.That day Chernobyl disaster changed lives of millions of our fellow countrymen and was one of the last nails into the coffin of the dying Communism regime.

We, at Active Ukraine, were too young yet to actually remember the events of that tragic day. But the stories of brave firemen, lost villages and displaced people have been passed on to us throughout our childhood.

An unprecedented tragedy at Chernobyl Nuclear Plant is the world's worst nuclear accident. Pripyat, the town closest to the reactor (3 kilometers distance), was home to 49,000 residents before the disaster, mostly the families of the plant workers; now no one lives there. The city of Chernobyl is only 4 kilometers to the south of the reactor. High radiation levels forced the evacuation of more than 100,000 people from the region surrounding Chernobyl, but today about 700 residents have returned to live in the region (although not the town itself).

The trip to the ghost town of Prypyat leaves you with mixed feelings. WikiTravel calls Prypyat ‘a freeze-frame of 1980s Soviet life. Propaganda slogans still hang on walls; children's toys and other items remain as they were. But buildings are rotting, paint is peeling and looters have taken away anything that might have been of value’.

Whether you decide to go on a trip to Chernobyl itself, visit the moving National Chernobyl Museum in Kyiv or simply are reading this blog post, take a moment to pause and, together with us - Ukrainians, commemorate lives that were tragically altered on the April 26th, 1986.

Thank you.