Even before my photographic residency at the Izolyatsia Foundation in Kiev I’d become fascinated by a group of people called ‘Liquidators’. These were the people that had been sent to Chernobyl to clean up the radioactive waste exploded from reactor 4 in the early morning of the 26th of April 1986. The Liquidators went where machines failed, fighting an invisible war against the atom. I met all of these people in Slavutych which was built to replace Chernobyl and Pripyat whilst continuing to service the Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl. After the disaster it was decided that production of power should continue in the remaining 3 reactors whilst the Liquidators continued their clean-up and decommissioning of reactor 4. Theirs is a story of lost youth and duty to the Soviet Union in the hope that that the state would look after them in return. The Chernobyl Disaster was seen by many as a catalyst for the devolution of the USSR and these people have been left with medals and meagre state pensions. Whilst there was clear sadness in many of the stories I heard during the interviews, not one of the people I met had regret for what they’d done. Only they were aware of the greatness of sacrifice they made.