Spanish traveller Alberto Blasco Ventas looked out at Ukraine's destroyed Irpin brige, blown up to stop Russian troops in 2022 and now a hotspot for thrill-seeking tourists visiting the country.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/28687478

Before the war, Ukraine already hosted tens of thousands of tourists every year in Chernobyl, which saw the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986.

War Tours, which organised his visit, said it has accommodated around 30 customers since January, mainly Europeans and Americans paying between 150 euros ($157) and 250 euros ($262) for the whole tour. Part of the profits are given to the army, said company co-founder Dmytro Nykyforov who insisted the initiative was “not about money, it’s about memorialization of the war.”

Mariana Oleskiv, head of the National Agency for Tourism Development, said the development of war tourism posed many ethical questions but that the market was bound to grow.