The OP is in the US, and trust me, a flight from the US to the Ukraine is anything BUT cheap. Lodging may be inexpensive, but everything else I will bet is not.
It depends.
It happened to us. We were wandering around streets in Kiev and we were looking for place to eat. We found some normal looking restaurant, so we went into. Personnel seemed to be OK, place was nice.
We received menu and then we realized that prices are quite comparable to prices in CZ. OK then, we ordered some food. We were the only persons in restaurant.
Then started to walk in ugly fat persons in suits escorted by top model chicks. Then we realized we were eating in expensive mafia restaurant, but still for prices which are normal for us.
Anyway, Chernobyl itself and Pripjat absolutely wasn't surprising for me. Nothing special that I never seen on pictures or videos on the Internet. Pripjat is definitely not a ghost city. It is a busy city full of tourists, workers and government personnel. And dogs. Lot of dogs.
Duga radar was perfect ! Surrounded by pine forests and under the radar site, there is marvelous sand beach !
Radar itself is in a good shape. Little bit care with new painting and it would work like brand new !