“A new tragedy caused by the Kremlin”. The widow of the first Chernobyl victim, killed in the Russian attack on Kiev
Block damaged in Kyiv after a Russian attack. Photo source: Ukrinform / ddp USA / Profimedia
Nataliia Khodemchuk, the widow of Valerii Khodemchuk, the first victim of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, died in Kyiv after suffering serious injuries in a massive Russian attack on the night of Friday to Saturday, reports The Kyiv Independent.
The State Agency for Management of the Exclusion Zone said Khodemchuk, 73, was seriously injured when a drone struck a residential building in the Troieshchyna district, and her apartment burned to the ground.
She was taken to the Burn Center near the Chernihivska metro station, but doctors were unable to save her life.
Khodemchuk's death brings to seven the total number of people killed in Friday night's missile and drone attack on Kiev, with at least 36 others injured and damage reported in nine districts of the capital.
Zelensky: “A new tragedy caused again by the Kremlin”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky commented on Khodemchuk's death in a post on X the next day, calling it “a new tragedy caused once again by the Kremlin”.
“Ukrainians who survived the Chernobyl accident and helped rebuild the country after that disaster are once again facing a danger – the terror of an aggressor state,” Zelenskiy said.
“Ukraine needs life-saving support: more air defense systems, more protection capabilities and more determination from our partners. Only in this way can Russian terror be stopped and Ukrainian families given their fundamental right to safety in their own homes.”
The Chernobyl accident
The Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred on April 26, 1986, when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. The accident remains to date the most devastating nuclear disaster in the history of nuclear power production in terms of civilian casualties.
Valerii Khodemchuk died instantly in the initial explosion and is commemorated as the first victim of the disaster. His body was never found. A monument dedicated to Khodemchuk is built in the sarcophagus of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Nataliia Khodemchuk spent many years preserving her husband's memory, regularly visiting the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the memorial dedicated to him and his symbolic grave in the Mytyn cemetery. The couple had two children, and the woman leaves behind grandchildren.
The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 4,000 people have died since the Chernobyl disaster from acute radiation symptoms, thyroid cancer, or radiation-induced leukemia.
