Both spellings are correct—they’re just in different languages. Chernóbil (Spanish) is also correct, but you probably wouldn’t point it out because it’s not Russian.
It was decided years ago, but some politicians and shareholders decided it was a good opportunity to exploit. Also the Russian economy was supposed to collapse few years ago because of UE sanctions. Still waiting for that to happen.
You know, man, you should complete your joke and suggest that, following the Far East cities of Russia, the rest of Russia should also start using Chinese spelling.
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".
