They seem a very close team – Valya knows Alexei’s story so well, that she’s able to fill in the gaps when he forgets details and later, she shares some of her own perspectives too. “The BBC first, then others too.” He would have every right to be tired of the attention by now, but instead, he’s happy to talk to me for hours, as well as presenting the collection of various medals that decorate cabinets throughout his home in the Troieshchyna district of Kyiv, where he lives with his wife Valya. After the series aired, Ananenko tells me, he was busy for months with visits from journalists. It is September 2019, and along with millions of other viewers, I have just recently seen a dramatised version of Alexei Ananenko on screen, played by Baltasar Breki Samper in HBO’s acclaimed Chernobyl miniseries. He’s funny too – relentlessly cracking jokes throughout the time we spend together. I hadn’t known what to expect, exactly, meeting a celebrated Hero of Chernobyl – the recipient of countless honours and prestigious awards, a man sometimes credited with no less than having “saved most of Europe from becoming a radioactive wasteland.” But in person, Ananenko is as humble and down-to-earth as anyone I’ve met.
I met with one of them in 2019 to hear his story.Īlexei Ananenko opens the apartment door and with a wide smile, he says in English: “Come in, come in, you are welcome!” His eyes have a youthful twinkle to them, and he seems genuinely delighted to see us.
On, 10 days after the explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, three engineers entered the building’s flooded basement on a mission to prevent the disaster from getting a whole lot worse.
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