Syvash Exclusion Zone

The Syvash Exclusion Zone, officially the Syvash Coastal Zone of Alienation, and often shortened to "the SEZ," is an exclusion zone in Ukraine consisting of most of the coast of the Rotten Sea, which was heavily irradiated by Russia's 2023 atomic bombings in Southern Ukraine.   Before the 2040s, the term "Syvash" referred exclusively to the Rotten Sea, but the name of the SEZ caused it to instead to become a name for the Rotten Sea's coast. It is currently administered by the Federal Disaster and Emergencies Ministry.   In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. Full-scale war between the two broke out when Russia invaded in early 2022. By 11 June 2023, Ukrainian counterattacks had retaken almost all of Russian gains except for Crimea. In an attempt to prevent the fall of Crimea, Russia conducted tactical nuclear bombings across the northern coast of the Rotten Sea. As expected, an uninhabitable wasteland was created separating Crimea from mainland Ukraine. However, the Russians did not anticipate that vast amounts of the fallout that landed in the Rotten Sea would instead of sinking, be deposited all along its coast. After the Treaty of Kyiv, when Crimea was transferred back to Ukraine, the affected areas were evacuated and the SEZ was created. In 2078, falling radiation levels further away from the Rotten Sea's coastline allowed the SEZ to be shrunk by 21%.