Chernobyl Church (& Military vehicles)

Just a small one from me tonight. Its of church & vehicles (I know vehicles are now banned so feel free to remove)

If you Google anything related to “Prypiat / Chernobyl Military vehicle grave yard” You always get the same strap line: “Now closed to visitors” This is occasionally followed by “sold for scrap” but is always followed by “too radioactive”.

I also happen to know there are of lot of old military vehicles in Chernobyl near the church.

So when my guide offered to take my to Chernobyl Church on Sunday morning for a traditional Russian Orthadox ceremony, I couldn’t refuse.

The Church is beautiful. Lovingly maintained by the Chernobyl workers:


I was surprised to learn it is actually 270 years old. Chernobyl is an old place. Just the power plant is new.


We enter the church, which is full of men in military uniforms, singing sombre sounding hymns in Ukrainian.

As beautiful as the service is, when the serious prayer began a small group of us managed to slip off into the grounds.

Tables still set from May Day celebrations, at least a seat for every one in Chernobyl!



No matter where you go in Chernobyl, there is always some reminder of it’s recent past.


I spot a tall chimney poking up from the adjacent park and go to investigate what it’s attached to…


It’s a snorkel! They’ve given this tank the ability to drive through a river!

There are radiation warning signs everywhere.
Some thourough testing with a Geiger counter reveals they’re mainly for decoration:























I notice there is some arena seating:


Which leads to an anonymous (if you cant read Cyrillic) building.


This is an urbex site, and I’m an urbexer, so it’s be rude not to have a mooch




I realise that I’ve been gone a while, and that people are now pouring of the church.

Now’s a good time to go and thank my guide for the service... and head back into the city of Pripyat:

found that church on google earth and thought wow, some great colours there buddy and i took it this was more a museam of tanks, guess not

Cheers! It's more of a monument, than a museum!
They were from combat use as opposed to liquidation use.

I don't think we're going to see too many of these vehicles disappear in the next week and re-appear on ebay/petrolhead forums...

Dam good stuff that though I'm not sure I'd want to drive the tank through a river.

Excellent, I love the hand painted radioactive signs too

That church is stunning!

Have never seen a tank with a snorkel. The hand painted signs are nice too

lol, every one of those vehicles is amphibious, not just the first! And I really, really, re-heally want a BRDM-2 (the one in the second to last pic)

if anyone's interested:

The tank with the snorkel is (i think) a T-72
The other tracked APC is some sort of BMP
The 8 wheeled beast is a BTR-80 (the tear drop shaped hatch on the back covers a water jet propulsion system)
The 4 wheeled vehicle is a BRDM-2

That first church pic is stunning..such clarity...swine!!