Pavel Yefremov

Pavel is a young soldier sent into the evacuated zone around Chernobyl, assigned to a squad tasked with clearing the area of abandoned pets left behind by fleeing families. He is green, anxious, and visibly unprepared for what the job actually requires, following orders because that is what soldiers do.

Keoghan plays Pavel's dread with almost no dialogue, letting his face carry the horror of a boy realizing what he's been ordered to do. The show uses him to make the disaster's human cost concrete and small-scale, and Keoghan's raw, unguarded performance turns one grim assignment into the series' quietest gut-punch.