The world’s most catastrophic nuclear accident devastated a city in unimaginable ways – particularly for Oleksiy Breus, who voluntarily entered the control room mere hours after the devastating explosion.

The 1986 Chernobyl disaster sent ripples through the Ukrainian community for generations – but the radioactive contamination also affected Oleksiy during a single shift.

The 67-year-old, who strated working at the facility in 1982, was the final person in the control room when reactor No 4 malfunctioned during a safety examination.

He confirmed to the BBC that the acclaimed series Chernobyl accurately portrayed the severe, swift and observable impacts on the human body that the explosion caused.

“It looked like it would be a mass grave,” Oleksiy told Sky News, recalling his arrival at work that day in 1986.

“I was sure that the whole [night] shift had died there. At the moment of explosion I was in Pripyat, in my flat. I was sleeping tightly, I didn’t hear, I didn’t see anything. In the morning I was to go to work, and so I did. I knew nothing about the disaster, I just got on a bus and went to work.”, reports the Mirror.

“As I was coming close to the station, I saw from the bus that the block was destroyed. I always say that my hair stood on its end when I saw that.

“I didn’t understand why me and other workers were brought there. But it turned out that there was still much work to be done.”

In the immediate aftermath, Oleksiy spoke with shift leader Oleksandr Akimov and operator Leonid Toptunov. Oleksiy recalled: “They were not looking good, to put it mildly. It was clear they felt sick. They were very pale. Toptunov had literally turned white.”

Both succumbed to acute radiation syndrome (ARS) within weeks.

He added: “I saw other colleagues who worked that night. Their skin had a bright red colour. They later died in hospital in Moscow.

“Radiation exposure, red skin, radiation burns and steam burns were what many people talked about but it was never shown like this.”

As for his own condition – he appeared sunburnt by day’s end. He explained: “When I finished my shift, my skin was brown, as if I had a proper suntan all over my body. My body parts not covered by clothes – such as hands, face and neck – were red”.

During the weeks following the blast, 29 power station workers and firefighters died from ARS, Soviet authorities confirmed. A further two lost their lives from accident-related injuries.

Recounting that fateful day, Oleksiy suggested any attempts to contain the catastrophe appeared futile from the outset.

Plant director Viktor Bryukhanov, chief engineer Nikolai Fomin and deputy chief engineer Anatoly Dyatlov received 10-year labour camp sentences for their involvement in the tragedy.

Regarding Dyatlov, Oleksiy said: “The operators were afraid of him. When he was present at the block, it created tension for everyone. But no matter how strict he was, he was still a high-level professional.”

Vasily Ignatiev was amongst the first firefighters dispatched to tackle the blaze. Tragically, arriving from the nearby town of Pripyat, he remained unaware of the radiation danger.

Ignatiev succumbed to acute radiation syndrome on 13 May 1986.

In a terrifying development, three plant workers were forced to dive beneath the tunnel to open a faulty drainage valve, preventing the leak from reaching the water supply and potentially triggering a far more catastrophic explosion.

Oleksiy Ananenko, a chief engineer of one of the reactor sections, explained his approach to diving to repair the valve: “It was our job. If I didn’t do it, they could just fire me. How would I find another job after that?”.

Miners were subsequently deployed to excavate beneath the reactor to create space for a heat exchanger that would prevent the reactor’s core from contaminating the water table and potentially triggering an irreversible chain of fatalities.

Tragically, some Pripyat residents ventured out to witness the chaos and fell ill as a result. Ananenko said: “In hospital, I was treated with a guy who biked to that bridge in the morning on 26 April to watch it. He got a mild type of acute radiation syndrome, a doctor said.

“Another friend treated at the same time said he had a date with his girlfriend close to the [Pripyat] bridge that night. He had health problems afterwards.”

Oleksiy believes that in his view, Chernobyl forced the Soviet government into action and brought an end to their culture of secrecy. He stated: “For example, that useless secrecy, which became one of the reasons behind the Chernobyl disaster. When the operators pushed the red button, the reactor didn’t stop but exploded.”