Ukraine on April 26, 2019 marked the 33rd anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster, the world’s worst nuclear accident.
Members of the public, relatives of those who died as a result of the disaster, and those who fought the fire and and release of radioactive particles at the plant in April 1986 attended a ceremony at the memorial to the disaster in Kyiv.
Reactor No. 4 at the Choronobyl nuclear power plant was destroyed early on April 26, 1986 after an experiment to test the reactor went wrong.
The resulting explosion and fire sent a vast plume of radioactive contamination over much of Europe. Parts of Ukraine north of the capital Kyiv remain off-limits to the public due to lingering radioactive contamination, and a large number of towns and villages close to the plant had to permanently abandoned.