Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kyiv is both the capital and the largest city in Ukraine. Ukraine's modern history began with the East Slavs. From at least the 9th century, Ukraine was a center of the medieval living area of the East Slavs. This state, known as Kievan Rus,' became the largest and most powerful nation in Europe but disintegrated in the 12th century. Ukraine was the home of the first modern democracy, which exhibited republican form, during the Khmelnytsky uprising in the 17th century. After the Great Northern War, Ukraine was divided among a number of regional powers, and by the 19th century, the largest part of Ukraine was integrated into the Russian Empire, with the rest under Austro-Hungarian control. After a chaotic period of incessant warfare and several attempts at independence (1917–21) following World War I and the Russian Civil War, Ukraine emerged in 1922 as one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's territory was enlarged westward shortly before and after World War II. In 1991, during the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine regained its independence.
On April 26, 1986, a reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, resulting in the Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history. At the time of the accident, seven million people lived in the contaminated territories, including 2.2 million in Ukraine. A report prepared by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Organization attributed 56 direct deaths to the accident and estimated that there may have been 4,000 extra cancer deaths.
On 4th March, 2006 a blinding light illuminated the sky high above the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The incident lasted two full hours before subsiding, with witnesses reporting it disappeared as if power suddenly failed. Just over a month later, the skies are once again lit by an intolerably bright light. The clouds evaporated from the sky, followed by a tremendous thunder crash, lasting far longer than normal. After the thunder faded away, there was an ominous silence, followed by a 6.9 Richter earthquake. The glow in the sky continued, spreading over the entire region, while deadly energy disturbances raged through the Zone, making any rescue effort impossible. Subsequent investigation turned up the fact that the center of the explosion was a kilometer away from the nuclear plant itself; evidently, the nuclear fuel dump was going up. A few months later, The Zone abruptly grows five kilometers bigger. Most of the military personnel securing the perimeter perished, along with laboratories and their crews. Panic-stricken people from nearby villages were evacuated.
Five years later, information that the Zone is once again, at least a bit, safe to live in floods foreign media, sending in a wave of people seeking fame, fortune, or just trying to escape their past lives. They become the inhabitants of the Zone - STALKERS.