A model who caused global outrage with photos supposedly taken at Chernobyl has apologised and explained the images.
Sparking online outrage with a series of photos supposedly taken at the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, Instagram model Veronika Rocheva has argued the photoshoot was not actually in Pripyat.
Revealing she’d only chosen to tag the location because the photos reminded her of the popular HBO series based on the 1986 tragedy, the model calims to have shot the photos some 2,146 miles away in a disused canteen.
According to the MailOnline, Rocheva spoke with Russian publication life.ru about the huge backlash.
She said:
It was all filmed at a deserted location in Novosibirsk. It looked in a way similar to Pripyat and we just tagged the location as Pripyat.
We simply didn’t expect to get such outburst of negative reaction. We didn’t think about the consequences. In fact I was doing a vlog about the environment when I got inspired by the HBO Chernobyl series.
This is what made us link the location we used for filming to Pripyat, they just looked so equally abandoned. We thought it would be just our friends watching it, that was it.
We didn’t want in any way to hurt or insult people that went through such a horrendous tragedy. We pay deepest respect to the story of Chernobyl.
In the photos, Rocheva can be seen posing in an unzipped hazmat suit and thong, while tagging the radiated zone on Instagram.
Looking at the comments, it’s clear the model has enraged a lot of Instagram users.
One user wrote:
Wtf this is so disrespectful, this place deserve respect. You are a shame!
Another pointed out how offended they were by the photos: “You think you’re cool by disrespecting a place where hundreds died??? Sorry that you have to sell your body to get followers and likes, but if you’re gonna do it, do it in another place!”
While a third simply stated ‘That’s Disgusting.’
Despite her apology, the model hasn’t taken down the photos or removed the supposedly erroneous location tag from her post.
Perhaps that’s because she’s seen her Instagram followers increase since the online backlash – more than tripling her follower count to just over 13,700 at the time of writing.
Social fame, it’s a fickle beast.
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