Ukraine ousted Khrushchev and became the Soviet leader from 1964 to 1982. Many prominent Soviet sports players, scientists, and artists came from Ukraine. On 26 April 1986, a reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, resulting in the Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history. This was the only accident to receive the highest possible rating of 7 by the International Nuclear Event Scale, indicating a "major accident", until the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in March 2011. At the time of the accident, 7 million people lived in the contaminated territories, including 2.2 million in Ukraine. After the
Protestantism in Ukraine Ukraine and Chairman of Ukraine's parliament Oleksandr Turchynov, is a publicly acknowledged member of a Baptist church where he preaches regularly. Lutheranism has been known in Ukraine since the mid-16th century in Volhynia, Galicia, Kiev, Podillia and Pobuzhzha. Certain members of the gentry (the Radzyvil family) were Lutherans. The influx of thousands of Germans to Ukrainian regions in the 19th century resulted in dramatic growth of the Lutheran Church but it appears that there was no significant influence within the local ethnic groups. The Lutheran Church of that era was governed by the General Consistory office in St. Petersburg, Russia,