Seven Abandoned Ghost Cities in Ukraine

In Ukraine, abandoned cities exist not only in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Today, Another.Kiev will introduce you to seven abandoned, or almost abandoned, depressed towns in post-Soviet Ukraine.

Tour the drainage system and a nuclear bunker with real stalkers!

Pripyat

Before the Chernobyl accident, the population of Pripyat was almost 50 thousand inhabitants. But on April 27, the day after the disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the city’s life came to a halt with the start of the “temporary evacuation.”

Today, this city is a gloomy sight: empty high-rise buildings, kindergartens and schools, hospitals, stadiums, shops, a park with attractions, a cinema and a house of culture. It’s hard to imagine that sensible, happy people once walked the streets of this dynamically developing and prosperous city, and that children’s laughter rang out in the courtyards and parks. Now only stalkers (a local subculture of people who love the post-apocalyptic world and who are exploring the Exclusion Zone illegally) sometimes walk its ghostly streets.

Lyubech-1

The satellite town of the famous “Duga-1” radar station is located in the forests of the Chernigiv district, near the village of Rozvazhev. The antenna of the “Duga-2” radar has not survived to the present day, although it was much smaller; it was successfully dismantled in the early 2000s. But the town with the secret name Lyubich-1, marked on Soviet maps as a recreation center, still exists.

What is the major difference between Chernobyl-2 and Lyubech-1? In Lyubech-1, the antenna’s command post sits a considerable distance from the town, whereas in Chernobyl-2 it was inside the military town.
Photo by Zametkiev

Orbita

This city is located in the forests of the Chigirinsky district in the Cherkasy region of Ukraine. Orbita was designed as a town for power engineers, with a planned population of more than 20 thousand people. 45 years ago, a hydroelectric power station was built here in great haste, but the government decided to replace it with a nuclear power plant. After the Chernobyl disaster, all development was permanently stopped.
Orbita’s surroundings are ecologically clean, as none of the power stations were ever completed.

Almost all of the residential buildings here are 9-storey houses. Some of the empty apartments have been privatized, but no one knows where their owners are. Many flats have simply been abandoned.
Photos by Alexfoto

Polesskoe

The town of Polesskoe was split into two parts by the Uzh River, and it is a long-suffering land shaken by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It was previously called Habne. According to one account, it was founded by Jews. In ancient times, this city was famous for its fabrics and textile industry.
After the Chernobyl disaster, Polesskoe became the main evacuation site for the inhabitants of Pripyat. But it then turned out that its radiation level was no cleaner. In 1996, Polesskoe was stripped of its regional center status, and in 1999 the city lost its settlement status.
Before the Chernobyl accident, the city’s population was about 11.3 thousand people. There were factories and a consumer services center. There was a school, a vocational school and two houses of culture. Now about ten people live in Polessky, without any official status.
Within Polessky there are a great many houses and six high-rise buildings, which are very well preserved. Local residents insist that there has been no radiation for a long time.
Photos by Maxim-nm

Stepnogorsk

Stepnogorsk is located 30 kilometers from Zaporozhye, but people are rarely seen here. The city is reminiscent of “zombieland,” except that instead of a movie set, these are real ruins. It is not empty yet, although there is no gas, no heat and no water.
In the 1980s, more than two thousand people worked in the mine in Stepnogorsk. But the enterprise never managed to reach full capacity, and in the mid-1990s the mine was closed.
Deserted streets, broken windows, gloomy and lifeless stores — the city feels oppressive even to someone just passing through.
Photos by Sicheslavets

Dolinskoye

A ghost city on the map of the Kirovograd region. It has a huge number of high-rise buildings. The population is about 500 people. Facilities: electricity and gas. It could be called a showcase of Ukrainian mismanagement. Here stands the most extensive construction project in the history of Ukraine — the Krivoy Rog Ore Mining and Processing Plant of Oxidative Ores, which has been under construction for over 30 years.
This small, sleepy town is more like a village. Dolinskoye was meant to become a major industrial center, but it failed.
From Kirovohrad, there is only one bus a day. But the locals do not despair, and everyone hopes that some oligarch will finally recognize the value of their unfinished plant.
Photos by photogoroda.

Tsukrovarov

Only about 100 people are left. The empty high-rise buildings resemble the landscapes of the ghost town of Pripyat. Once the local sugar factory was cut up for scrap metal and the confectionery factory faded into oblivion, there was no work left for the people of Tsukrovarov. People began to move away, although at its peak the city’s population reached up to 6,000.
There is electricity in the city — and that is where the conveniences end. There is no water, no gas, no heating and no sewerage. The remaining residents chop up furniture for firewood in winter and have installed homemade iron stoves in their apartments.