The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine has registered a significant increase in the number of visitors to the exclusion zone around the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, Ecology Minister Ostap Semerak has said.

According to information from the Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry, the exclusion zone has been visited by over 63,000 people in 2018 while the number of visitors to the zone in 2017 was over 49,000 people and over 36,000 people in 2016.

"In 2014, the exclusion zone was visited by over 8,000 people," he said.