Journalist trips to Chernobyl are now available through Young Pioneer Tours and our partners in Kyiv, although there are strict rules regarding accreditation, and this should not be seen as back door or loophole way to visit Pripyat and beyond.

Journalist trips to Chernobyl – What are the rules?

Journalists that wish to visit Chernobyl need to be registered with the Ukrainian authorities, which generally takes about three weeks.

Documents that need to be provided are as follows:

1. Copy of passport 
2. Scanned copy of media representative’s certificate
3. Letter from media organisation requesting accreditation
4. Passport photo

After accreditation, Young Pioneer Tours can then start arranging a media tour of Chernobyl.

Examples of the type of packages offered can be found here

Media Trips to the front line in Ukraine

Young Pioneer Tours can also help arrange trips to the front line in Ukraine, as well as to war torn cities, such as Kharkiv. These differ in many ways to the trips to Chernobyl that we can arrange in that they do not necessarily require the same form of accreditation.

In this respect we can arrange trips for people doing art or film projects who do not necessarily work for a media organisation, such as independent media people.

These trips though not only involve a much higher cost due to the security that is required, but are media trips and are not being offered as a back door tourist entry. We are not arranging war tourism in any way shape, or form.

Travel to Lviv and Kyiv

We are of course also still running our small trips to Lviv and Ukraine that are capped at 6 people and are designed to not just show the realities of war within Ukraine, but also boost the local economy.

You can read more about these trips here.

As with all trips of these nature, YPT run our own risk analysis, but you should always check with an external organisation such as the UKFCO before deciding to book any trip.