Working trip to Bragin

On 26 April, the 35^th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko paid a visit to Bragin, Gomel Oblast.

During the working trip Aleksandr Lukashenko gave additional instructions regarding the landscaping and development of Bragin and other Chernobyl-affected towns. The head of state drew attention to the need to clearly determine the land plots that could be in demand for private housing construction and landscaping around them.

He proposed to act in the same way with respect to other similar urban settlements and small towns in the south of Belarus, making improvements and creating living conditions for people.

Another focus is the maximum use of local raw materials and fuels, and the use of electricity.

The head of state was briefed on the progress made in landscaping Bragin. These works were carried out in 2018 as part of the President's instruction to complete the landscaping projects in at least two urban settlements in each region within five years, taking into account local features, and following the example of the urban settlement Kopys in Orsha District.

In particular, social and sport infrastructure has been developed and a park has been arranged. “The center of the town is ideal today,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The President stressed that unlike Kopys, Bragin is the center of the district. “The level is higher than in Kopys. Nevertheless, some ideas of Kopys’ landscaping should be used here. We have divided the area into land plots there. People are free to buy them, build houses. We should do the same here. This is the development prospect of Bragin and other small [towns],” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

“In this regard, this is good experience of putting in order not only the villages, but also the district centers. We can also do the same in agro-towns, and larger cities. We should pay attention to it,” added the Belarusian leader.

He is sure that with a thorough approach, including the construction of roads and infrastructure, such areas will be in demand.

“It should definitely be done in Bragin. It would be great for a settlement like Bragin: there is a center where people can come and do sports. The houses are neat and tidy. We need to support our five or six southern districts. We cannot abandon these lands. How one can protect these lands if there are no people here. We have to develop such settlements, district centers and agro-towns.

The head of state also spoke to the youth. The development and support of amateur sports in small towns and settlements like Bragin was discussed. Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed the importance of this area, calling it one of the foundations of the ideological work.

In Bragin the President took part in the ceremony to lay the Alley of Memory in Bragin to mark the 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident.

The participants of the ceremony planted 35 maple trees symbolizing 35 years after the tragedy. A memorial sign was also unveiled there.

During the working trip Aleksandr Lukashenko attended a requiem meeting near the monument to Vasily Ignatenko, a native of Bragin District.

The head of state recalled that the Chernobyl accident was recognized as the largest man-made disaster in the history of mankind. It has affected more than two dozen countries, but the major fallout landed on Belarus. “Today, 35 years after the tragedy, we gathered here, about 46km away from the site of the explosion, to honor the memory of the heroes who saved the European region from an even greater tragedy," Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

Among such heroes, the Belarusian leader named Vasily Ignatenko, a native of Bragin District. "He went down in history as a commander who showed a personal example of courage and bravery in performing a difficult combat task, as a strong-spirited man who, despite his burns, saved his comrades," the head of state noted. Thanks to the coordinated actions of Ignatenko's unit, the fire on the roof of the 4th unit was completely extinguished. The commander of the unit was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine.

"Remembering Vasily Ignatenko, we pay tribute to the feat of firefighters, military, medics, scientific and technical staff of the plant. Those who fought fire at the cost of their lives, provided first aid at the accident site and erected a protective sarcophagus," the President said. He recalled that among the Chernobyl cleanup workers were 115,000 Belarusians.

"The feat of Chernobyl heroes shook the world. It is not about the fact that these people worked to the limit of their abilities and did everything to minimize the threat. It is that they knowingly sacrificed their lives for others,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed. “They knew that they would have to work in deadly radiation, that a risk of another explosion was great. Yet they went to the site and did their job. Without doubt and fear, in a single formation, helping each other, as the Soviet people always did."

"If it were not for the courage, dedication to duty and self-sacrifice of these people, the scale of this tragedy, the Chernobyl accident, would have been much greater. We must never forget the feat of heroes who gave their lives for the safe future of the people of the Earth. Rest in peace heroes!" the Belarusian leader said.

“The Chernobyl accident changed the fates of millions of people. For the Belarusian people it became a national ecological, economic and social disaster,” the head of state said.

In his words, more than a third of radioactive fallout fell on almost a quarter of Belarus’ territory – this is almost a quarter of the Belarusian forestry reserves, more than 100 deposits of raw materials and minerals, 265,000 hectares of fertile lands and 340 industrial enterprises. The overall damage made up almost 33 budgets of the republic of the year 1985. As scientists say, we still have to determine the impact of the tragedy on people’s health, the head of state added.

“A terrifying term ‘the exclusion zone’ came to our lives. In an instant we found out that we were not allowed to cultivate those lands and reap the harvest, we were not allowed to gather berries and mushrooms because they were dangerous, we were not allowed to swim in those rivers and go fishing, it was dangerous to live in those villages. In the peaceful time we felt the pain from the loss of our native land,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. Life stopped in almost 500 populated areas, more than 300,000 people lost their homes, the President added.

He recalled that some time ago people from abroad advised Belarus to close the Chernobyl-affected part of the country. “But the Chernobyl tragedy, on the contrary, united Belarusians in their desire to preserve this land, to make us stronger. We recalled a lesson of our fathers and grandfathers: you should never give up, you should never stand on your knees!” the Belarusian leader said. “Therefore, I visit these territories very spring on these memorable days.”

“The Chernobyl catastrophe had a strong impact on my fate and on the fates of people who have gathered together for this requiem meeting. Back then you were thinking about your lives, your future; and I had to think about you, about the country, about the huge territory. The most difficult thing for me was to make a decision that we will not abandon these territories. As a person and as President I was doing my best to convince you that we cannot give up on these beautiful lands,” the Belarusian leader concluded.

In his opinion, the time proved that the decision had been right. “We made the right decision not to give up on these lands. And today I am happy to meet with people whom I met 25 years ago (back then they were young people, now some of them are over 80), I am happy that they are alive. It shows that the decision of yours and of your President was right.”

“We will do our best to restore populated areas (not only district capitals, but also villages and agrotowns),” the head of state assured and mentioned Bragin as an example. In his words, it is essential to continue the development of these territories. “People will live here, and they will live well. We will do our best for it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.

“Even in the poor 1990s we found money to support Chernobyl-affected people. We found money for recuperation and construction of new houses for them, for scientific research and opening of specialized medical centers, for the restoration of polluted regions,” he continued.

Five national programs to restore Chernobyl-affected territories were implemented in Belarus. “By cleaning meadows, beautifying towns and villages, creating modern infrastructure, we were bringing one hectare of land after another back to life. Today we witness the decreasing number of populated areas where the permitted level of radioactive pollution is exceeded. But the main thing is that we produce good foodstuffs. People live there, make families and give birth to children,” the President said.

He praised the efforts to restore the Belarusian Polesye. At the same time, the head of state remarked that a lot of work is still ahead. In particular, it is essential to prepare a new program with a focus on opening enterprises and creating new jobs in affected regions. According to the President, agribusiness and the forestry industry seem to be the most promising branches. “The time has chosen us, and we must do our best to restore these lands. And you know that such things as the development of the region, the creation of conditions for the life and work of people are always and will always be on my radar,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.

“I know for sure that together we will cope with these tasks. In the near future we will do our best to leave a mark of the man-made disaster only in historical chronicles and in honoring the memory of liquidators,” the Belarusian leader emphasized.

The head of state stressed that in the next five years, withstanding all attacks and pressure that Belarus is facing, it is essential to work out a program for the development of Chernobyl-affected areas, it is essential to restore these lands.

“Our generation and the generation of our children understand what the Great Patriotic War is, although we did not fight. We know it very well. Our children know. Are you sure that the children of our children will be as concerned about those events as we are? The events of the previous year showed that not all of them will,” the head of state said. “Therefore, if we do not handle the Chernobyl issue within five years, if we do not determine what to do in the future, especially within those five years on those lands, no one will. Pain will go away. Chernobyl will disappear from our lives. It’s hard to say if this pain will stay in the lives, hearts and fates of our children and grandchildren. Therefore, we must do everything to restore and reinvigorate those territories.”

For this purpose, the President visits Chernobyl-affected regions and familiarizes himself with the situation there when he is flying above these territories in a helicopter. “When we are flying above these territories it is painful to realize that they could have been abandoned forever, that they could have disappeared,” the head of state said.

The President thanked those who decided to stay in Chernobyl-affected areas. “Please accept the warmest wishes and gratitude for your courage on behalf of the Belarusian people. You do not realize what a great thing you are doing by living, restoring these lands and raising your children here. We bow low to you. And thank you very much. We will do our best to restore these territories,” the Belarusian leader said.

He also urged to honor the memory of Chernobyl clean-up workers. “Do not forget them. They are heroes who knew that they would die in the peaceful time. Can you image what it means to die in the peaceful time? To pay for somebody’s mistakes with your hearts and lives (that tragedy was not ours). They did their job and died. They deserve to be remembered. Our children should know it, they should know the value of life.”

During the commemorative rally, a minute of silence was observed in memory of the feat of the Chernobyl cleanup workers; flowers were laid to the monument of Vasily Ignatenko in the center of Bragin.

After that the President spoke with the residents of Bragin and urged them to take an active part in the revival and development of their land. He touched on the topic of the pandemic, spoke about the progress in the vaccination of the population, the development of a domestic vaccine, and assured that everything necessary is being done to protect people.

Aleksandr Lukashenko also spoke about social and political issues, calling for peaceful discussion of any problematic matters. “We need to get together, discuss, do it without a fight. Because someone needs this fight. Someone needs chaos (you know who) on this land. Live peacefully. You will never regret staying here,” the President said.

The head of state said how during the first years of his presidency there were talks about setting up the Polesie People's Republic, i.e. an attempt to separate Belarus into parts. If they had succeeded then, there would have been no question of restoring the Chernobyl lands. “We managed to preserve these lands only thanks to the fact that we collected money from all over the country and sent it here,” said the President.

“Now they want to divide Belarus in half again. It won't work! Even without me. We have realized that we have our own land and our own country and we will not give it to anyone,” the head of state added.

During the working trip to Bragin Aleksandr Lukashenko hosted a meeting to discuss the revival of the Chernobyl-affected lands in the south of Belarus. Attending the meeting were the heads of the districts which lands are located within the boundaries of the affected areas.

The meeting focused on the efficient usage of the lands of the Polesie state radiation and ecology reserve and its surroundings. This matter was raised by the President during his visit to Narovlya District on 24 April. “We have to work out, as I understand, the final program for the revival of these lands, the program on the mitigation of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident. Why is there such a need and even an opportunity right now? We have lived 35 years after the Chernobyl accident and we have understood the way we have to go and restore life,” the President said explaining the reason to hold the meeting.

Aleksandr Lukashenko stated that back then, just a few years after the accident, many tried to make politics on it, exaggerating the topic. Moreover, many decisions were taken at random. “We were smart enough then to do it gradually [to work on the revival and development of the affected areas]. We supported people. We did everything to understand what was going on, to save people and to save these lands. Thirty-five years have passed, and we can see what is bad, what we have to move away from and what we have to do to solve the main task. The main task for us is to revive these lands. This is the main thing,” the head of state said.

“This program should be a program for land revival, the purpose of which should be the level of the pre-Chernobyl period, with certain features,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko. According to him, there is no need to restore small villages. “We need to decide, as we said in Narovlya, where people will live. These are district centers (we have them) and agro-towns, which we have as well. We need to focus on these agro-towns,” the head of state said.

Logging and woodworking is one of the promising areas for the development of these areas. “First of all, we need to plant forest on vacant areas, and there are many of them. There are a lot of such areas,” the head of state said.

The focus will also be on agriculture, which plays a significant role in the economy of these regions.

“We have to think about what we will do in the south of the country. As we once planned, we need to build a railway from Zhitkovichi to Yelsk. We will calculate everything. If it pays off at least in 10-12 years, it should be done to involve this region. We also need to work on the development of other roads. We need to restore this region and determine where people will live. We should understand what enterprises to build there, what jobs will be available,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko.

The task is to work out an appropriate program by September.