The Soviet government went to great lengths to keep the explosion a secret. But when the truth was finally revealed, no expense was spared to contain the effects of the tragedy. And sadly, human lives were among these expenses as well. Although the incident itself didn’t take lots of direct casualties, the radioactive substances released to the atmosphere would cause much more harm subsequently. People involved in the clean up would later suffer from cancer and lung diseases. And it’s impossible to estimate the impact of the incident on the cancer related deaths across the whole Europe.
Apart from the human cost, a tremendous amount of equipment was used during the liquidation process. Most of these machines would later be abandoned in the zone due to the high level of contamination. Tanks, APCs, helicopters and trucks were gathered on a vehicle graveyard near the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant.