City-ghost Orbit, unfinished Chigirinsk NPP

The residential district was ceremonially inaugurated on 22 April 1986 — Lenin’s birthday. Exactly four days later, Reactor No. 4 at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. The city designed for 20,000 nuclear workers never received its residents.

This is Orbita — a ghost town beside the unfinished Chyhyryn NPP in southern Cherkasy region. It is sometimes called «Ukraine’s second Chornobyl,» though there has never been any radiation here. There was a dream — and it ended in four days.

Quick Facts

What It Is and Why Visit

Orbita was supposed to become a thriving city for energy workers — a satellite of a large nuclear (later redesigned as thermal) power plant. The plans called for schools, kindergartens, shops, parks and thousands of apartments. Instead, there are a handful of nine-storey blocks in the forest, where empty flats sit next to occupied ones, shuttered shops stand beside those still open, and courtyards are slowly being swallowed by shrubs.

People come for a unique contrast: this is not a completely dead city like Prypiat, but a half-alive one. A handful of people still hold on here, lights still glow in a few windows, dogs still bark. That is what makes Orbita special: it is not a museum of the past but a mid-sentence project of the future, where someone still lives.

The city was designed for 20,000 residents. Today fewer than two hundred people live here — roughly one in every hundred that were planned.

History: The Plant That Never Was

Construction of the Chyhyryn plant began in the 1970s: at first a large thermal power station was planned, then the project was redesigned as nuclear. Alongside it, a settlement for construction workers and future energy staff was built — Orbita.

The symbolic groundbreaking of the residential district took place on 22 April 1986. On 26 April the Chornobyl disaster occurred. Public trust in «peaceful» nuclear energy collapsed, a wave of civic resistance rose, and by the late 1980s — around 1989 — the Chyhyryn NPP project was permanently shelved.

What Remains

The giant unfinished plant hulk by the Kremenchuk Reservoir, several nine-storey residential blocks, a former department store, shops and utility buildings. Some apartments never saw residents; others were eventually occupied. The town found itself in a strange state of perpetual «almost»: almost built, almost abandoned, almost alive.

Legends and Local Lore

A town with this story was always going to attract legends.

1. The Cursed Date

The most popular local legend hinges on numerical mysticism: the district was laid just before Chornobyl, so people pass on the story that the town was «doomed from the start» — as if the date itself invited disaster. The coincidence is chilling, but it is exactly that — a coincidence.

2. Light in Empty Windows

They say that in buildings officially unoccupied, light sometimes «flickers» in the evenings. The rational explanation is sunset reflections in surviving window panes. But when half a stairwell stands empty, the detail gets under your skin.

3. The City That «Waits»

Among the residents there lives an almost poetic conviction: Orbita is not abandoned, it is simply «waiting» for its 20,000 people who never came. A sad but very precise metaphor for this place.

What to See and Do

The unfinished plant. The main draw — enormous concrete structures by the water. The scale impresses even from a distance.

Empty nine-storey blocks. The classic «ghost» experience: doorless stairwells, windowless flats, overgrown courtyards.

Former department store and shops. Soviet-era artefacts that never saw their customers.

Kremenchuk Reservoir. A vast stretch of water nearby that adds a sense of scale and stillness to the landscape.

Getting There

By car. Orbita is in southern Cherkasy region, in a forested area near the Kremenchuk Reservoir, not far from Chyhyryn. Set your navigation to the urban-type settlement Orbita. Part of the road runs through forest.

Combine with Chyhyryn and Kholodnyi Yar. Nearby are the hetman city of Chyhyryn, Subotiv and the legendary Kholodnyi Yar. Orbita fits naturally into a wider route through the Cossack heartland of Cherkasy region.

Important. This is a residential settlement: people live here. Behave respectfully, do not peer into occupied flats, and do not treat someone’s home as a film set.

Visitor Checklist

• Camera: the main reason to come — atmospheric shots.
• Sturdy shoes: rubble, rebar, undergrowth.
• Water and snacks: almost no facilities on site.
• Power bank: for navigation and photography.

What NOT to do: climb into the unfinished plant structures (unsafe floors), disturb local residents, photograph people without permission, or leave litter.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there radiation in Orbita?

No. The plant was never completed or commissioned; nuclear fuel was never brought here. The nickname «Chornobyl-2» is purely figurative, referring to a similar fate and proximity of dates.

Do people live there?

Yes, fewer than 200. Orbita is a half-alive town, so treat it as a residential settlement, not an abandoned site.

Is it safe to visit during the war?

Cherkasy region is a relatively rear-area region, but strikes are possible across Ukraine. Monitor air alerts and the current security situation.

What else is worth seeing nearby?

Chyhyryn, Subotiv and Kholodnyi Yar — landmark sites of Cossack history. Orbita fits naturally into a single route with all three.

Orbita is the materialised story of how a single catastrophe erased the plans of an entire city in four days. There is no radiation here and no Prypiat-style dead silence. There is something stranger: a town stuck between «we’ll build it» and «we’ll abandon it,» where next to empty windows someone is still hanging laundry on a balcony.

Come, look at the concrete giant by the water, walk the quiet courtyards — and remember: for someone, this «location» is simply home.