![[ rfe/rl banner ]](rferl-article.gif)
Ukraine Marks Chornobyl Disaster
April 26, 2006 -- Ukraine is marking the 20th anniversary of the Chornobyl (Chernobyl) nuclear disaster with a day of national mourning and memorial services across the country.
In Slavutych, the Ukrainian town built to house workers evacuated from the Chornobyl plant after the nuclear disaster, bells rang as hundreds of people filed through the streets.
In the capital, Kyiv, President Viktor Yushchenko placed a large bouquet of roses at a memorial marked by two stone slabs on a knoll.
He then traveled to the town of Chornobyl, some 18 kilometers from the nuclear plant, for another service to commemorate the victims of the world's worst nuclear accident.
Yushchenko paid tribute to "the Ukrainian heroes who died 20 years ago for the sake of our lives and the future" in the cleanup after the accident. "I am confident their deed will remain forever engraved in our lives," he said.
At a special parliamentary session, lawmakers demanded more help for the millions affected, and more information on what really happened.
At 1:23 a.m. Kyiv time, a minute of silence was declared. That was the moment on April 26, 1986, when the nuclear reactor exploded, spewing out a radiation cloud that spread throughout Europe and as far as Japan.
The Chornobyl disaster contaminated large swathes of territory in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia.
In Belarus, opposition groups were expected to hold a demonstration today in the capital, Minsk, against the government's handling of the catastrophe's aftermath.
(dpa, AFP, Reuters)
Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
