Principal photography began in April 2018 in Lithuania. Initial filming started on May 13, 2018. The majority of the filmings took place in Fabijoniškės, a residential district in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Fabijoniskes has maintained an authentic Soviet atmosphere. Accordingly, it was used to portray the Ukrainian city of Pripyat. An area of densely built panel housing apartments served as a location for the evacuation scenes. Director Johan Renck heavily criticised the amount of diverse and eye-catching modern windows in the houses, but was not concerned about removing them in post-production. At the end of March, production moved to Visaginas, Lithuania, to shoot the exterior and interior of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, a decommissioned nuclear power station, also known as "Chernobyl's sister" due to its visual resemblance and the nuclear reactor design used at both Chernobyl and Ignalina (RBMK nuclear power reactor). In early June 2018, production moved to Ukraine to shoot minor final scenes. The filming of "Chernobyl" took 16 weeks.