Yulia Svyrydenko visited the exhibition “Chornobyl: The Ukryttia Facility” at the Ukrainian House

It is crucial to discuss Chornobyl from various perspectives—not only through numbers and documents, but also through art, memory, and human stories. This was noted by Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko during her visit to the exhibition “Chornobyl. The Ukryttia Facility” at the Ukrainian House.

The experience of shared trauma has been reinterpreted in folk art, in the works of artist-liquidators, in the works of Maria Pryimachenko, Viktor Zaretsky, Ada Rybachuk, and Volodymyr Melnychenko, Liudmyla Meshkova, in documentary photographs, and in contemporary art projects. This is a vast layer of culture that has become a collective reinterpretation of the tragedy.

“The story of Polissia—my native region, which suffered the most from the disaster and radioactive contamination—as told in the exhibition is striking. We lost entire cities and cultural environments due to the irresponsibility of the Soviet regime, but this experience shapes our understanding of security today,” the Prime Minister shared her impressions.

Special emphasis is placed on the Ukryttia (Shelter) facility and the evolution of approaches to safety: from the initial decisions following the accident to the creation of the New Safe Confinement.

According to Yulia Svyrydenko, russia has brought the nuclear threat back to Europe through attacks on energy infrastructure and the use of nuclear safety as a tool for blackmail. Therefore, we must also speak about Chornobyl in the language of culture—to remember and prevent a recurrence.