Chernobyl is just another popular spelling that people have gotten accustomed to.
But no one outside the Russian Mir ever refers to Alaska as Aljáska.
There's no signficance or import to the chosen spelling. This whole flame war is completely pointless.
Exactly. And “Chernóbil” isn’t - that’s my point. So the argument about “Chernóbil” is as pointless as “Aljiáska”.
While "Chornobyl" is the current official Ukrainian spelling of the city name, the catastrophe itself took place at the "Chernobyl NPP" and the zone is consequentially named "Chernobyl Exclusion Zone".
Renaming the past is not a way to win the future.