Visiting the Belarus Exclusion Zone

Updated September 2026, Visiting the Belarus Exclusion Zone was originally published in May 2025

The Belarus Exclusion Zone, officially known as the Polesie State Radioecological Reserve, is one of the most unusual places I have visited in Belarus. Established in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the reserve covers a huge swath of southern Belarus along the Ukrainian border, where radioactive fallout contaminated forests, farmland, and dozens of villages.

On April 26, 1986, Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, sending radioactive material across parts of Belarus, Ukraine, and beyond. Belarus received a particularly large share of the fallout, and thousands of people were eventually evacuated from contaminated settlements in the Gomel Region.

The Polesie Reserve was established in 1988 as a protected area for studying the long-term effects of radioactive contamination on nature. For decades, it was closed to ordinary visitors. When I visited in December 2024, access was possible only with an approved guide, permits, and official authorization.

I spent a day exploring the Belarus Exclusion Zone from Gomel, traveling through abandoned villages including Babchin, Dronki, Oravichi, and Pogonnoye, while carrying a Geiger counter to monitor radiation levels along the way.

Belarus Exclusion Zone at a Glance

Official name	Polesie State Radioecological Reserve
Location	Southern Belarus, Gomel Region
Established	1988
Why it exists	Scientific research and monitoring following the Chernobyl disaster
Nearest major city	Gomel
Border	Ukrainian border
Can you visit?	Access has historically required official permission and an approved guide
Can you visit independently?	No
What you’ll see	Abandoned villages, Soviet-era buildings, forests, wildlife, and radiation monitoring stations

Where Is the Belarus Exclusion Zone?

The Belarus Exclusion Zone is in southern Belarus in Gomel Region, immediately north of the Ukrainian border. The area is centered on the Polesie State Radioecological Reserve, which covers contaminated land affected by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. The nearest major city is Gomel, while Khoiniki serves as an important gateway for visits to the reserve.

How to Visit the Belarus Exclusion Zone

Visiting the Belarus Exclusion Zone is not an independent travel experience. Entry into the Polesie State Radioecological Reserve requires official authorization, permits, and an approved guide. When I visited in December 2024, I arranged my trip in advance through Exclusion Zone BY, whose guide Peter organized our transportation and permits.

I traveled from Gomel and spent the day exploring the reserve by vehicle, visiting abandoned settlements and other restricted areas. Because regulations and access arrangements can change, check the current entry requirements before planning a trip to the Belarus Exclusion Zone.

I visited Belarus in December 2024 using the main border crossing between Vilnius and Minsk with my friends Bekah and Jolie to take advantage of visa-free access for EU and UK passport holders entering Belarus by its land borders.

Leading up, Bekah had been in contact with Peter of Exclusion Zone BY to arrange our visit in advance of us all arriving in Gomel.

Peter handled everything from transport to the necessary permits in order to visit the areas within the Polesie State Radioecological Reserve. It is only possible to visit the Belarus Exclusion Zone with an approved guide. Visiting independently is not permitted.

Can You Visit the Belarus Exclusion Zone?

Access to the Belarus Exclusion Zone has historically been possible only through organized, authorized visits. Independent entry is prohibited, and visitors require permission to enter the Polesie State Radioecological Reserve. The practical situation can change, however, so current border, tourism, and reserve regulations should be confirmed before traveling.

Starting from Gomel

We visited the Belarus Exclusion Zone as a day trip from Gomel, leaving around 6 am and driving south toward the Ukrainian border. After roughly two hours we reached Khoiniki, the main jumping-off point for our visit.

In Khoiniki, we swapped Peter’s car for a UAZ-452, affectionately known as a buhanka or “loaf,” which we used to travel through the reserve for the rest of the day.

Polesie State Radioecological Museum

Our first stop was the Polesie State Radioecological Museum, where we completed the paperwork required to enter the reserve. Exhibits explain the Chernobyl disaster, radioactive fallout across Belarus, the isotopes found in contaminated areas, and the long-term environmental effects of radiation.

Inside, there are maps showing the nuclear fallout over the Belarus Exclusion Zone and the half-lives of some of the more prevalent isotopes that resulted from the Chernobyl Disaster.

Displays also cover traditional homes, local wildlife, and the reserve’s flora. Among the most interesting exhibits were maps showing the spread of radioactive contamination and information about isotopes including iodine-131, cesium-134, and cesium-137.

Iodine-131, cesium-134, and cesium-137 were the isotopes that accounted for the majority of the radiation exposure received by the people in the Belarus Exclusion Zone and Pripyat. Iodine-131 has a relatively short half-life at about 8 days, cesium-134 has a half-life of about two years, whereas cesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years. Other isotopes found in significant quantities following the Chernobyl explosion were strontium-90, plutonium-239, and plutonium-240.

The average person who lived in contaminated areas of Belarus and Ukraine on average received a dose of 30 mSv of radiation in 1986, whereas the average amount of background radiation received by each person globally is about 2.4 mSv per year.

Further on, there are displays of what the traditional homes looked like in the area, as well as taxidermied fauna displays of the wildlife that can be found scattered about the Polesie Reserve.

The Polesie Reserve is also home to a diverse array of flora, some of which is outlined at the museum, with 48 of Belarus’s 189 species of endangered plants being found within the reserve’s boundaries.

Entering the Belarus Exclusion Zone at Babchin

A bit further down the road is the abandoned village of Babchin, the once center of the Oktyabr Collective Farm. A bit further on we reached the KPP entry checkpoint to the Polesie State Radioecological Reserve.

Inside the checkpoint, we were issued a Geiger counter to monitor radiation levels throughout the day. From here, the road disappeared into the forests and abandoned settlements of the Belarus Exclusion Zone.

The gates to the reserve were unlocked, and we were then allowed to pass through (with a mandatory photo op, of course).

The Roaming Bison of the Belarus Exclusion Zone

Once on the brink of extinction, the European bison (Bison bonasus) has made an unexpected resurgence within the Belarus Exclusion Zone inside of the Polesie Reserve. Thriving in the dense forests and open meadows of the untouched reserve, the bison population has steadily increased, benefiting from the absence of human interference.

Scientists studying these bison have noted their adaptability, with herds roaming freely through areas that were once villages and farmlands. Despite the potential risks of radiation exposure, the bison appear to be healthy, and their numbers continue to grow. Their presence in the reserve highlights nature’s ability to reclaim and repopulate areas left untouched by human hands.

Efforts are being made to monitor and protect this growing population of bison with researchers tracking their movements using GPS collars and studying their migration patterns, diet, and behavior. Conservationists view the Polesie Reserve as a potential stronghold for European bison, which remain endangered in other parts of their natural range on the continent.

Their success, along with other fauna found in the area such as the Eurasian lynx, gray wolves, Przewalski’s horses, wild boars, moose, and red deer within this unique environment provides valuable insight into how larger mammals can survive and even thrive in post-human landscapes.

Abandoned Villages in the Belarus Exclusion Zone

The Belarusian villages of Oravichi, Dronki, and Pogonnoye have remained sealed off from the world for thirty-eight years. Nestled deep within the nuclear exclusion zone, these villages are ghosts of their former selves. No one has called this place home since the early hours of April 26, 1986, when Chernobyl’s reactor exploded and life here came to a sudden halt.

22,000 people spread between 96 Belarusian villages, including Dronki, Oravichi, and Pogonnoye, were alerted over the following weeks that they were being evacuated elsewhere.

Dronki

Dronki was one of the abandoned villages we explored inside the Belarus Exclusion Zone. The settlement has centuries of history, passing through the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Kingdom of Poland, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and eventually modern Belarus.

During the Soviet period, Dronki became a collective farm settlement. Today, its school, homes, agricultural buildings, and other structures sit abandoned among the forest. Desks, textbooks, faded Soviet murals, and rusting machinery remain reminders that this was once a functioning community rather than an empty ruin.

Dronki was evacuated in 1986 after the Chernobyl disaster and is now part of the restricted Polesie State Radioecological Reserve.

The air around Dronki is heavy with an eerie stillness, disturbed only by the distant rustle of wind through the overgrown streets. The snow-covered streets are laced with weeds, faded murals of a bygone Soviet-era adorn crumbling walls, and decaying farm equipment left rusting in the field.

In 1929 as Stalin’s five year plan for collectivization was spread across the Soviet Union, the residents of Dronki formed a kolkhaz (collective farm).

In the schoolhouse, desks remain covered in a thick layer of dust, scattered textbooks left open on lessons that would never be completed.

Once home to generations of families, Dronki now sits deep within the Polesie State Radioecological Reserve, abandoned since the Chernobyl disaster forced its evacuation in 1986. Roofs have collapsed under the weight of time, trees sprout from the remains of houses, and rusting Soviet-era signs still cling to leaning fences, warning of invisible dangers.

Oravichi: An Abandoned Village in the Belarus Exclusion Zone

Crumbling wooden houses sit hidden beneath a tangle of trees in the village of Oravichi, their doorways left open as if waiting for their owners to return to one the area’s largest villages. Peter got out the Geiger unit at a square in the middle of the Oravichi, once a gathering place for the community. The Geiger unit rang up at 11.8 μSv/h (0.0118mSv/h)- fairly low considering what had happened just over the border and safe enough for a day trip to the Exclusion Zone.

Oravichi was among the larger of the villages in the Polesie Reserve Region with over 900 residents back in 1959. Much like Dronki, Oravichi has a long-standing history as a part of numerous states.

The origins of Oravichi date back to the 16th century, though the village really began to develop in the 1930s as collectivism swept across the USSR. By 1931, there was an elementary school, a department of consumer cooperatives, a windmill, a blacksmith, among other infrastructure and business operated in Oravichi.

It was also in the 1930s that collective farms by the names of Kommunar and Victory of Socialism were functional.

During World War II, Oravichi found itself within the Partisan Struggle against Nazi occupation. Lives from Oravichi were lost in the struggle.

By 1959, Oravichi had become the center of the larger Oravichi State Farm and be this point in time there was a kindergarten and secondary school, library, a nursery, a hospital, a pharmacy, a post office, a shop, and a canteen.

Two weeks later following the Chernobyl Disaster, Oravichi was evacuated on May 4, 1986, with the village’s inhabitants ordered to leave everything and board vehicles out of what would become the Belarus Exclusion Zone. The village was left to be reclaimed by nature, remaining completely untouched since that fateful spring in 1986.

Pogonnoye: One of the Largest Abandoned Villages

We arrived in the village of Pogonnoye, one of the largest in the exclusion zone.

Pogonnoye first appears in records in 1526, though named Zemlitsa Pogonnaya, a place for grazing cattle.

Fast forward to the 1930s and Pogonnoye was enveloped into the Victory of Socialism State Farm along with the village of Oravichi. During World War II, Pogonnoye was burned down completely in May 1943, killing 89 residents. In their memory, a sculpture was installed in 1971 in the center of the village.

Pogonnoye grew substantially in 1976 when residents of the neighboring village of Borovitsa were moved to Pogonnoye to work on the collective farm.

By this point, there was a sawmill, a mill, a mechanical workshop, a pavilion of the district consumer services complex, a secondary school, a cultural center, a library, a nursery-kindergarten, a hospital, a post office, a canteen, and three shops.

At the time of its evacuation in May 1986, Pogonnoye was home to 1322 residents.

Returning to Gomel

After exploring the remains of Pogonnoye, we headed back to Khoiniki to change cars once again and head back to Gomel, where we had based ourselves for a few night to explore this southern region of Belarus.

Needless to say, we’re all planning our next return to Gomel and the Belarus Exclusion Zone (plus there’s a Lenin statue Bekah missed for her collection on Khoiniki.

Belarus Exclusion Zone vs. Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

The Belarus Exclusion Zone and the better-known Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine are separate restricted areas created following the same 1986 nuclear disaster. The Ukrainian exclusion zone surrounds the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and includes Pripyat, while the Belarusian restricted area lies north of the Ukrainian border and is centered on the Polesie State Radioecological Reserve.

The Belarusian side is less associated with the Chernobyl power plant itself and more with the villages, forests, wildlife, and communities affected by radioactive fallout across southern Belarus. At this time, visiting the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is not possible.

Have any questions about visiting the Belarus Exclusion Zone?

Ask in the comment section below.

Posts From Belarus