On May 25th, 2026, while attending the 4th International Summit of Cities and Regions in Kyiv, ALDA – represented by Antonella Valmorbida, ALDA’s Secretary General – paid a visit to the locations where the biggest nuclear disaster of Chernobyl took place in 1986.
Only a few weeks after the 40th anniversary of the disaster, happened on April 26th, 1986, ALDA had the opportunity to visit not only Chernobyl, Pripyat and the nuclear plant, but also the town of Borodyanka, sadly known for having been one of the main axis of the russian advance on Kyiv in 2022. The visit involved ALDA as well as the European delegations who were attending the Summit of Cities and Regions in Kyiv: a two-day meeting that brought together over 100 local and regional governments from across Europe sharing the same commitment of standing alongside Ukraine despite the ongoing conflict.
The Summit, organised within the framework of the national project “Shoulder to Shoulder: Cohesive Communities” with ALDA as a leading partner, aimed at offering concrete spaces of solidarity and cooperation, building partnerships between Ukrainian and European municipalities in order to co-design the pillars of Ukraine’s reconstruction.
The Summit’s intentions and goals emerged even more meaningfully after what happened just the day before its opening: on May 24th, in fact, Kyiv was the target of an overnight attack striking the very city centre, in a residential area. ALDA’s Secretary General Antonella Valmorbida witnessed the offensive: “When we went to see the wreckage, we could still smell the burnt houses”, she said.
The attack not only hit important infrastructures such as residential buildings, transport network buildings and one of the oldest food markets in the city, but also destroyed the Museum of Chernobyl, which was only recently reopened after a large-scale restoration. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the museum lost about 40% of its collection due to the shelling.
A russian missile was found on the roof of the Museum’s building, demonstrating that these attacks do not operate on strategic and military areas only, but deliberately strike civic areas attacking Ukrainian citizens, culture and memory, in what clearly appears to be a war of terror.
These circumstances made ALDA’s visit to Chernobyl, Prypiat and Borodyanka even more meaningful and essential, physically bringing an agent of democracy to the places where the major disaster took place 40 years ago – the memory of which was severely attacked just the day before the visit – and to the town that suffered the consequences of the war as much as the neighbouring, most known Bucha.
Now more than ever it is of fundamental importance to show ALDA’s presence and support in the places that bring value to the Ukrainian culture and historical memory, witnessing the effects of the war on the country and bearing messages of peace, reconstruction and international cooperation. ALDA firmly stands by Ukraine through its presence and actions in the country and for the country, continuing its commitment towards a bottom-up approach as a tool of social change, sustainable development and international collaboration.