Yevhen, born in a Jewish family in Chernobyl on April 26, 1986, is known as the “last child of Chernobyl.” Forty years later, he serves in Ukraine’s army.

Born on the night of Chernobyl — now defending Ukraine

On April 26, 1986, on the night of the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, a boy named Yevhen was born in the small town of Chernobyl. At that moment, the world still did not understand what had happened. The Soviet system was still trying to hold the catastrophe inside its usual formulas: “nothing terrible,” “keep working,” “do not cause panic.”

But reality had already changed.

That night, the fourth reactor unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was destroyed. Radioactive substances were released into the air. Communication with Pripyat, Ivankiv, and Kyiv became a problem. Doctors at the Chernobyl hospital were trying to deliver a baby without having complete information about what was happening nearby.

It was on that very night that Yevhen came into the world — the child now known as the last child of Chernobyl.

This story became known to a wider audience thanks to a video by Marichka Padalko, published on April 23, 2026. In it, the journalist explained how she and her colleagues managed to find the man who had been born in Chernobyl on April 26, 1986, and meet him during another tragedy — Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.

Today Yevhen is 40 years old. He lives in Ukraine and serves in the Ukrainian army.

A man born on the night of one of the worst technological disasters of the twentieth century is now defending his country from Russian drones.

Why this story matters for Israel and the Jewish audience

There is one detail in this story that cannot be pushed aside: Yevhen was born into a Jewish family.

For many people, Chernobyl is associated first of all with the nuclear disaster. But before the accident, it was not only a town near a nuclear power plant. It was also a place with deep Jewish history. Jewish families lived in Chernobyl; there was memory of an old shtetl, of neighbors, homes, courtyards, and ordinary life — a life that after 1986 was destroyed not only by radiation, but also by forced departure.

For the Israeli audience, this is especially important. Chernobyl is not a foreign geography. Thousands of Israelis come from Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and other parts of the former Soviet Union. For many of them, the memory of Chernobyl is part of family history. Many have relatives, friends, neighbors, or acquaintances who were affected by the disaster directly or indirectly.

Yevhen’s story brings together several layers at once: the Jewish memory of Eastern Europe, the Ukrainian tragedy, Soviet concealment, and today’s war.

This is not simply one man’s biography. It is a symbol of how history returns to people decades later.

What happened in the maternity ward on the night of the accident

According to the participants in these events, there was no clear understanding in the Chernobyl hospital that night of the scale of the catastrophe. Petro, the obstetrician who delivered the baby, recalled that he was called to the maternity ward because the woman in labor needed medical assistance.

He walked to the hospital on foot.

It was spring. A small town. An ordinary night. There was still no feeling that ordinary life had ended.

The woman in labor — Yevhen’s mother — came to the hospital on foot together with her own mother. Her contractions had begun at night. According to the recollections, Chernobyl was a small town........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)