[1] On the night of 26 April 1986, Akimov was on duty as the shift supervisor of Chernobyl's electronuclear plant 4th power unit.

The reactor stalled unexpectedly during test preparations, however, reportedly due to a mistake made by Leonid Toptunov.

[2] Raising power after this point put the reactor into a potentially dangerous state due to design flaws, unbeknownst to the operators.

Due to a design flaw, the descending control rods momentarily accelerated the nuclear reaction and caused the reactor to explode.

By the time accident investigator Sergei Yankovsky questioned him, Akimov could barely speak and could not provide much more information.

[6] In 2008, Akimov was posthumously awarded with the 3rd degree Order For Courage by Viktor Yushchenko, the then President of Ukraine.