The only residents of the 10-kilometer zone

Novoshepelychi lies in the 10-kilometer zone, the most contaminated part of the Chornobyl Zone - closer to the plant than any other village where someone stayed. Two people lived here: Savva and Olena Obrazhei, the only self-settlers in the entire "ten." We had a special interest in them.

They did not live like hermits at all. They kept a large farm and livestock, worked the gardens of neighbors who had been gone since 1986, and had a boat they launched on the Prypiat. Their grandchildren came to visit. Savva refused to leave, even though radiation levels in the village are fairly high.

In winter we came to see them on a humanitarian visit. We brought things they might need and talked for a long time: how a self-settler lives, how they get through the winter, which wild animals come up to the house. On the way we also stopped by Ivan and Mariia, self-settlers in Paryshiv.

Savva Obrazhei lived in his native Novoshepelychi all the years after the accident. He passed away in the fall of 2014. We remember him.