On April 26, a ceremony of Chornobyl Atlantes monument unveiling took place near Chornobyl NPP Administrative Building. The power plant personnel were involved directly in the construction of the statuary and also financed the process. The central figure of this monument is the figure of the Hero of Ukraine Oleksandr Lelechenko who was the deputy chief of Electric Shop and who laid down his life to prevent a hydrogen explosion and the spread of accident to other ChNPP power units.
Acting ChNPP Director General Valeriy Seyda, First Deputy Head of the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management Andrii Pliatsko, Deputy Technical Director (for safety) Oleksandr Novikov, who was this project idea man, initiator and promoter, participated in the ceremonial event.
«Every year on memorable days I imagine that exactly in this place some terrible events were happening. It means that people were aware that something irremediable had happened and under severe conditions they were doing their best to stop the accident propagation. I would like us to remember these people not only as the memorial boards. Because a man is not dead until the memory about him/her is alive,», — сказав Валерій Сейда.
The First Deputy Head of SAUEZM Andrii Pliatsko noted that the people had to remember the heroic deed of the accident consequence liquidators as “without overstating it, the world has survived thanks to them” and he said that the humankind should learn the important lessons from the past and remember them forever.
Oleksandr Novikov in his emotional speech noted that the essence of the memorial title personifies every employee who holds on his/her shoulders a very heavy burden named as “Chornobyl” and he conveyed his sincere gratitude to all who participated in this statuary creation.
At the end of this ceremonial event the flowers were laid down at the foot of the monument and there was the conveyed by Volodymyr Zelenskyi, President of Ukraine, floral basket as a token of high esteem of the state and tribute to the memory of the heroic deed during the accident mitigation.
