The day the Chernobyl Museum burned

Published June 14, 2026 8:00am ET



The first sound

At 5 a.m. on May 24, employees at Kyiv’s Chernobyl Museum heard the thud of what was almost certainly an Iskander missile.

In wartime Kyiv, a thud is never just a sound. It is a question. Where did it hit? Who was hurt? What is burning?

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