{"id":107507,"date":"2024-10-02T14:30:34","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T11:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/107507\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"former-diplomat-chernobyl-charity-leader-ruchla-dies-aged-73","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/107507\/","title":{"rendered":"Former diplomat, Chernobyl charity leader Ruchla dies aged 73"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"block-image block-image-normal\">\n\n  <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"808\" height=\"512\" src=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ruchlja-kosulin-astapenko-winkelmann-2001-earchives-bsu-by-2.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ruchlja-kosulin-astapenko-winkelmann-2001-earchives-bsu-by-2.jpg 808w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ruchlja-kosulin-astapenko-winkelmann-2001-earchives-bsu-by-2-354x224.jpg 354w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ruchlja-kosulin-astapenko-winkelmann-2001-earchives-bsu-by-2-734x465.jpg 734w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ruchlja-kosulin-astapenko-winkelmann-2001-earchives-bsu-by-2-768x487.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 808px) 100vw, 808px\" \/>\n  <figcaption>\n      <div class=\"block-image__descr\">\n\n        A picture taken in 2001. From left to right, Belarusian State University Rector Alaksandar Kazulin, Ruchla, German Ambassador Horst Winkelmann and U\u0142adzimer Astapienka, a deputy rector, standing behind the cameraman\n    <\/div>\n  \n       <div class=\"block-image__author\">\n                <span>(earchives.bsu.by)<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n     <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>October 2, <em>Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong> Alaksandar Ruchla, a former diplomat who dedicated his life to alleviating the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, has passed away after a serious illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After a short diplomatic career, Ruchla headed Chernobyl-related charities and is best known as the man who initiated the construction of the Nadzeja (Hope) Belarusian-German medical center for children from contaminated areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2005, he was fired from Belarusian State University&#8217;s International Department after endorsing an opposition presidential candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cApparently, I have lived too long in Germany to be satisfied with what is going on here,&#8221; Ruchla told journalists after his dismissal. \u201cBelarus is a country that could easily follow the European path. . .&nbsp; It hurts me when I imagine what could have been here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October 2, Pozirk. Alaksandar Ruchla, a former diplomat who dedicated his life to alleviating the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, has passed away after a serious illness. After a short diplomatic career, Ruchla headed Chernobyl-related charities and is best known as the man who initiated the construction of the Nadzeja (Hope) Belarusian-German medical center [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":107483,"template":"","rubric":[15],"class_list":["post-107507","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-society"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Former diplomat, Chernobyl charity leader Ruchla dies aged 73 | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 2, Pozirk. Alaksandar Ruchla, a former diplomat who dedicated his life to alleviating the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, has\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/107507\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former diplomat, Chernobyl charity leader Ruchla dies aged 73 | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"October 2, Pozirk. Alaksandar Ruchla, a former diplomat who dedicated his life to alleviating the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, has\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/107507\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ruchlja-kosulin-astapenko-winkelmann-2001-earchives-bsu-by-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"808\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Pozirk_online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/107507\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/107507\/\"},\"headline\":\"Former diplomat, Chernobyl charity leader Ruchla dies aged 73\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-10-02T11:30:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/107507\/\"},\"wordCount\":130,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/107507\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ruchlja-kosulin-astapenko-winkelmann-2001-earchives-bsu-by-2.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/107507\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/107507\/\",\"name\":\"Former diplomat, Chernobyl charity leader Ruchla dies aged 73 | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/107507\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/107507\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/ruchlja-kosulin-astapenko-winkelmann-2001-earchives-bsu-by-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-10-02T11:30:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-09T20:10:49+00:00\",\"description\":\"October 2, Pozirk. 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