Chornobyl Exclusion Zone: a ride towards Vilcha

Into the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. About 80 km across the flat, forested Polissia lowlands, from the south-east edge of the Exclusion Zone near the Kyiv Reservoir to the abandoned settlement of Vilcha in the north-west. The track is drawn with only a few points, so it shows the general direction and not the exact road.

Background. After the accident at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant on 26 April 1986, a zone of 30 km around the plant was closed and its towns and villages evacuated; the zone was later extended to about 2,600 km². The Pripyat river, which flows from Belarus to the Dnipro, runs through it. Vilcha was a village with a railway station and has stood empty since the evacuation. With no people, the forest has taken back the land and many wild animals live in it, including wolves, elk, lynx and wild Przewalski’s horses.

Good to know. The Exclusion Zone is not a place for individual trips. Entry is only allowed with a permit and an authorised guide, the rules change, and parts of it are still dangerous because of radiation, old buildings and – since 2022 – war damage. Check the current status before you plan anything, and do not remove anything from the zone.

Picture: The Pripyat river at Chornobyl, Weirdmeister, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.