37 years ago, on 26 April 1986, the Chornobyl disaster broke out, which is considered the largest in the history of nuclear power both in terms of the number of people killed and affected by its consequences and the economic damage. Former Dynamo player Vadym Yevtushenko shared his memories.
"I was a little surprised that on the eve of the game with Spartak, the delegation of the republic's leadership and the 'fathers of the city', who traditionally pumped us up before matches, did not come to the base in full force. It was the last game before the Cup Final. After the match, we were supposed to go home. But the plans were adjusted - after the match, the team was taken back to the base in Konche-Zaspa. On the bus, Valerii Lobanovskyi said unusually loudly that something had happened in Chernobyl.
We were not allowed to go home - Lobanovsky's assistant Vladimir Veremeev quickly made arrangements with Dynamo Moscow, and we trained at the team's base in Novogorsk before our flight to France. After winning the Cup of Cups, we returned to Moscow, where all the national teams remained - more than 10 people. The rest of us, including me, went to Kyiv by train.
There were a lot of people at the railway station in the Ukrainian capital. But they came not only to meet Dynamo Kyiv. People were actively travelling away. I noticed from the bus window that Kyiv was somehow empty. There were hardly any women or children in the city. I already had two children at that time. My wife went with them to Kirovohrad to visit her relatives. She returned only after I returned from the World Cup," Yevtushenko said.