This is Kiev’s Mother Motherland statue (Rodina-mat), one of a series of statues erected by the old Soviet Union to commemorate their victory in what was known there as the Great Patriotic War – which many people might know better as the Eastern Front of World War II.

This statue is an absolutely massive 102 metres tall (although 40 metres of that is actually plinth). However at 62 metres its still flippin’ huge, and the statue itself supposedly weighs something approaching half a million kilos. I found a photo on flickr which begins to give you an idea of scale, and also clearly demonstrates that the Soviet Union appears to have been engaging in a certain form of flattery.

For those of you still paying attention, her plinth is 7 metres taller but she’s actually 16 metres shorter, meaning that Kiev’s Mother Motherland wins in terms of height if not in recognition.

Thanks to BBC2.

P.S. No, I’m afraid this one isn’t on Google Maps yet :-/

Parked at Gostomel Airport we find the only completed Antonov An-225 Mriya, which is the world’s biggest aircraft! (the American “Spruce Goose” has a larger wingspan, but it only ever flew once, and the Mriya is larger in terms of overall size). Compare its size to those ‘normal’ planes over to the East.

Originally designed to carry space shuttle as part of the Soviet Space Program the An-225 is now available commercially if you happen to need 250 metric tonnes of stuff carried about the world (5 tanks? 8 buses? 1,500 people?). Alternatively, it can carry up to 200 metric tonnes externally on the specially designed “roof-rack”.

There’s loads of ground-level pictures showing the six engines and 32 wheels on air and space.com.

Thanks: Al Cohole, Scott Richardson, Eddie & Paul

Yesterday was the 20 year anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, and Google has marked the occasion by providing high-resolution imagery of the whole area. In our thumbnail you can see the concrete sarcophagus which was built to attempt to contain the worst of the radiation within the destroyed reactor room.

We previously posted Chernobyl in June last year, but this new image update really gives you an idea of just how desolate this area has become.

Or has it? According to this article at the bbc the area surrounding Chernobyl has become an unexpected haven for all manner of wildlife, with hardly a Blinky in sight! In fact, even the sarcophagus itself has become a nesting ground for birds. Just to the north west is the deserted town of Prypyat where you can see the woods are slowly taking over from the abandoned tower blocks.

See Wikipedia for the full history of the Chernobyl Disaster.

Thanks to Juras Michiod, biseptol, Randall Berg, Eddie, Joshua Szentpaly, Yuri, Marco Olivo, Anton Matt Clark and Andrew Barrett.

The site of the Chernobyl nuclear power station is in Ukraine, at the far east of Europe. There isn’t super-high res imagery of the area but you can get the general idea of the layout. For an annotated image there is a handy one over on wikipedia. Of course, it is next to large water supply as this was used to generate the steam to drive the power generating turbines. Over 300,000 people had to be resettled because of the Chernobyl accident, around 600,000 participated in the cleanup, millions lived and continue to live in the contaminated area. An increased incidence of thyroid cancer among children in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia affected by the Chernobyl accident has been firmly established as a result of screening programs.

Thanks: Erin, Aaron & Thomas