Chernobyl, or Chornobyl, is the name of a city situated in northern Ukraine near the border with Belarus. Chernobyl was largely abandoned following the disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant located 14.5 kilometers (9 miles) away. Ukraine was part of Russia on the 26th April 1986 when the disaster occurred. The City is now within the 30Km Exclusion Zone that surrounds the Nuclear Power Plant. Prior to its evacuation Chernobyl was inhabited by 16,000 people but is now populated only by Zone administrative personnel, some of those involved in decommissioning the power plants and a number of residents who refused to leave their homes or subsequently returned.