A word from Svetlana Alexievich in an interview conducted with her on the occasion of the release of the Arabic translation of the book.

To all who will read this book... I am extremely happy with the release of the Arabic translation of my book "Chernobyl Prayer," because the issue of Chernobyl is the concern of the whole world. When the disaster was still in its early days, I heard people around the world say: this can only happen to you reckless Russians, while no one would describe the Japanese in such terms when the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster occurred.

Humanity stands powerless against the technology it has invented, foremost among which is nuclear power technology.

Our insistence on moving forward in this path means that we are determined to commit suicide. It is not just a European concern, but should preoccupy the entire world, in Latin America and South Africa, they still believe in nuclear energy, as we did thirty or forty years ago.

We understood that there is no separation between military and peaceful nuclear energy – they are all the same. I hope everyone understands this. The greatest threat to humanity is itself.

The time when man built his relationship with nature with the logic of power, from atop the throne of a god, is gone. Chernobyl made us look towards eternity... perhaps we can call it a rehearsal for the end of the world. We might all perish - this is not fantasy. Our wonderful world might vanish with all its forests, rivers, and animals.

My hardest memories of Chernobyl are the scenes of people leaving the contaminated villages, abandoning the animals - which soldiers shot and buried in biological graves. When soldiers entered the villages, animals followed their sounds, coming out to meet them, perhaps feeling happy to hear human voices again... They did not yet know that humans had betrayed them.