在車諾比事件核電廠爆炸輻射雲範圍擴至全歐的不幸事件屆滿21年後，26日烏克蘭總統尤申科(Viktor Yushchenko) 呼籲國人支持重建鄰近封閉反應爐附近無人居住的受污染區域。尤申科及一群哀悼者在黎明前祈禱和點亮燭光，紀念在1986年4月26日凌晨1點23分發生的震驚全世界的核爆災變。
尤申科26日在基輔市外的一所學校演講時表示，在那個地區採行醫療保健和經濟重整，並且吸引投資以使這個地區恢復生氣，是非常重要的。21年前，車諾比第4號原子反應爐爆炸後，引發了一場火災，及一連串的意外爆炸及反應爐核心熔毀。
一縷縷的核子輻射塵在俄羅斯西部、歐洲、東北美上空飄動。烏克蘭大塊區域、白俄羅斯、俄羅斯等均受到嚴重污染。這也導致33萬6千人撤離家園，重新尋找居處，反應爐周遭30公里區域因而封鎖至今。
尤申科說：「這塊土地必須重新找回活力。我們應該正視它還是有遠景的，而非是烏克蘭一塊已從地圖上消失、且最好忘記不再想起的地方」。
車諾比核災事件發生後，有31個人在頭兩個月因輻射感染死亡。而長期以來的死傷人數還尚有爭論。聯合國世界衛生組織估算出：有9300人死於車諾比事件外洩輻射引發的癌症。有一些單位如綠色和平組織，質疑死傷人數應在此數目10倍以上。
為了彰顯這個紀念日，來自歐洲6國的30位綠色和平組織成員企圖阻止預計要在法國Flamanville興建的輕水反應爐興建工程。
Today, on the 21st anniversary of the explosion and fire at Chernobyl that sent a radioactive cloud across Europe, the president of Ukraine urged the country to support renewal of the uninhabited, contaminated region around the closed reactor. Yushchenko and a group of mourners prayed and lit candles before dawn to mark the precise time of the world's most devastating nuclear catastrophe, which occurred at 1:23 am on April 26, 1986.
Speaking Wednesday at a school outside Kiev, Yushchenko said it is vital to introduce healthcare and economic reforms in that area and attract investment to revitalize it.
Twenty-one years ago, Chernobyl reactor No. 4 experienced a catastrophic steam explosion that resulted in a fire, a series of additional explosions, and a nuclear meltdown.
A plume of radioactive fallout drifted over parts of the Western Soviet Union, Europe, and eastern North America. Large areas of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were heavily contaminated, resulting in the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people. A 30 kilometer (18 mile) zone around the plant remains closed to the public.
"This land must be revitalized," Yushchenko said. "We should look at it as having prospects, not with the feeling that this is a territory of Ukraine that has been erased from the map and which we must forget."
Thirty-one people died within the first two months of the Chernobyl disaster from illnesses caused by radioactivity. There is debate over the longer-term toll.
The UN's World Health Organization has estimated that 9,300 people will die from cancers caused by Chernobyl's radiation. Some groups, such as Greenpeace, believe the toll could be 10 times higher.
To mark the anniversary today, 30 Greenpeace activists from six European nations halted construction of the Electricite de France's proposed new European pressurized water reactor at Flamanville, France.
