<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/30/russian-missiles-devastated-kyiv-cultural-sites>
"For four years, Vitalina Martynovska and her team had been working on a
complete transformation of Kyiv’s National Chornobyl Museum.
The new sleek displays were designed to tell a fresh story about the reactor
explosion of 26 April 1986 – the most serious nuclear accident in history, a
factor that contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and an event that
continues to shape Ukraine’s identity today.
The museum was to be devoted not just to the extraordinary work of the
“liquidators” who did the initial cleanup after the explosion. It was also the
story “of all the people whose lives changed after the disaster”, said
Martynovska, the museum’s director.
It reopened to visitors on 26 April, 40 years to the day since the nuclear
disaster.
Then, less than a month later, on the night of 23 May, a shock wave from a
Russian missile engulfed the museum’s handsome historic building, a former fire
station.
Five days later, a still profoundly shocked Martynovska was standing among the
museum’s charred remains. Firefighters toiled amid the absolute destruction of
everything she and her team had worked so hard to create.
“There is practically no room in the museum that has not suffered damage,” she
said. “The building itself sustained significant damage, the roof was
destroyed, the floor between the second and third storeys was destroyed, and
collapsed; the exhibition rooms and the museum laboratory were affected.”
About 40% of the irreplaceable artefacts on display, according to early
assessments, were destroyed."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
