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Chernobyl horror rememberedUkrainians mark 20th anniversary of nuclear disaster
 Widows of vicitms of the Chernobyl nuclear accident hold portraits of their husbands. RELATED
QUICKVOTEYOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- Bells tolled across Ukraine and the families of victims carried red carnations and candles Wednesday to mark the 20-year anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl. The April 26, 1986, pre-dawn explosion which spewed radioactive contamination across whole swathes of Europe was being marked in Ukraine with daylong events on a day of national mourning. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko flew over the crumbling concrete-and-steel shell that covers the damaged reactor. He later laid two red carnations beneath a monument to the victims. "As I look into your eyes, I remember all those heroes who died 20 years ago for our lives, for our future," Yushchenko said. "Your feats will be remembered forever." "Chernobyl," he declared, "must not be a mourning place. It must become a place of hope." The Chernobyl disaster cast a radioactive shadow over the health of millions of people. Many also say it contributed to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. On Wednesday, hundreds of people -- each bearing a candle and some with red carnations -- filed slowly through the streets of Slavutych, the town built to house the Chernobyl plant's workers after the world's worst nuclear accident. "Let God not allow this to be repeated, let God not make our grandsons relive this," said Valentyna Mashina, 55, standing near the Chernobyl monument. At 1:23 a.m. Moscow time (2123 GMT) -- the time of the explosion and subsequent fire that sent a plume of radiation billowing throughout Europe -- a minute of silence was observed. A bell tolled and alarm sirens blared. Moscow time had been in use at the plant at the time. Meanwhile in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, those who lost their lives after the disaster were mourned at a ceremony in a church dedicated to Cherbnobyl victims. "My friends were dying under my eyes," Konstantyn Sokolov, 68, a former Chernobyl worker whose voice was hoarse from throat and lip cancer, told The Associated Press at the service. "I try not to recollect my memories," Sokolov said as Orthodox priests led the mourners in a somber procession. "They are very terrible." Death tolls connected to the blast are still keenly debated. At least 31 people died as a direct result of trying to keep the fire from spreading to the plant's three other operating reactors. One plant worker was killed instantly and his body has never been recovered. Twenty-nine rescuers, firefighters and plant workers died later from radiation poisoning and burns, and another person died of an apparent heart attack Mykola Malyshev, 66, was working in the control room of Chernobyl's Reactor No. 1 at the time of the explosion. He told AP at the Kiev service the lights flickered and the room shook. The workers were ordered to the destroyed reactor, but when they got there, their co-workers ordered them to flee and save themselves. "They told us, 'We are already dead. Go away,"' Malyshev recalled at the Kiev ceremony. The blast in Chernobyl's fourth reactor -- during an unexplained experiment -- contaminated large swathes of territory in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Later rain brought contamination from the radioactive plume to Scandinavia, Wales, England and Scotland. Soviet authorities took two days to inform the world and their own people. They then launched feverish clean-up and reconstruction efforts culminating in construction of a concrete casing to entomb the wrecked reactor. Thousands suffered health problems from the radiation and the "sarcophagus" encasing the reactor now needs replacing -- an undertaking likely to cost millions of dollars. Nuclear power, out of favor for years after the accident, is now making a comeback as governments like the United States and China seek cleaner and cheaper alternatives to oil and gas. Estimates of the total death toll linked to Chernobyl vary widely. The World Health Organization puts at 9,000 the number of people expected to die due to radiation exposure, while the environmental group Greenpeace predicts an eventual death toll of 93,000. Hundreds of thousands were evacuated. The United Nations says 7 million still live on land with unsafe radiation levels. Because of still-high radiation levels, the zone is deserted except for a few elderly residents who refused to leave, Reuters reported. Trees now grow inside some apartment blocks. In some cases they were equipped with only shovels and gas masks. Some died immediately, others later from massive doses of radiation. Yushchenko, the Ukraine president, has appealed to foreign donors to help his country replace the concrete casing hastily built around the reactor after the disaster, which is now leaking. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the anniversary was a reminder of the need for a common approach to nuclear safety, especially as many countries are planning to build new reactors. U.S. President George W. Bush paid tribute to "lives lost and communities hurt in the devastation." Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report. 
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