Kiev and Moscow mark 27 year anniversary of Chernobyl

Ukraine today remembers the victims of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant which occurred 27 years ago.
In Kiev and regional centers prayer services will be held for the victims and a requiem will be read at the Chernobyl memorial where flowers will be laid, TASS reports.

A gathering in memory of the victims was also held on Thursday night in Moscow with rescue workers their children and grandchildren gathering on Suvorov Square.

They observed a minute of silence in memory of the victims and launched sky lanterns as a symbol of the departed.

Fire engines turned on their flashing lights at 01:23AM, at the very minute when the 4th power unit of the station exploded.

The Chernobyl accident was the largest man-made disaster in history involving the peaceful atom.

There is talk that a Biosphere Reserve may be established on the territory of the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

Ukraine has put forward the idea which would include cooperation with Russia and Belarus.