The Children of Chernobyl Disaster Face Cancer

Thirty years later, how many cancers caused by Chernobyl disaster ?

On April 26, 1986, Cchernobyl nuclear power plant, in what is called today Ukraine, exploded. Thirty years later, 'one can still feel its bloody legacy'.

'Cancer figures in Belarus, which sits between Poland, Russia and Ukraine, rocketed in the late 1980s and early 1990s and then tailed off.

But last year there was an increase of nearly 20% in child cancer cases.

Cancer-stricken youngster Misha Kozlov has never heard of the Chernobyl disaster.

But the radioactive cloud that ­engulfed his parents’ home 30 years ago has blighted his short life.

Aged only four, he has just completed several courses of chemotherapy and has had a huge tumour removed from his leg.

Misha is from the East European region that was worst affected by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant ­meltdown on April 26 1986.

Red-eyed with emotion and fatigue, his mum Elena, 35, says: “I think Misha’s cancer is very probably caused by radiation.

“In our town there are a lot of children who have cancer and I think it is because of radiation, but what can you do.”

Invisible in the soil, the slowly-decomposing particles of radioactive waste from Chernobyl are still stalking their innocent victims