A man grieving at the monument to Chernobyl victims in Slavutych, 50km from the accident site, and where many of the power station's personnel used to live, during a memorial ceremony early yesterday. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Kiev had been left alone to fight the fallout for too long, said Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, noting that Ukraine's total economic losses from the disaster amounted to US$180 billion (S$222 billion).
In some years, state spending on overcoming Chernobyl amounted to 10 per cent of the budget.
'Despite difficult economic circumstances, Ukraine for the last 20 years has been financing on its own the expenses on overcoming the disaster,' Mr Azarov said.
'We are sure that the solidarity of nations and states, the humanism of modern civilisation will not leave Ukraine without help from outside.'
Yesterday's 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster has gained an eerily contemporary resonance after the March11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan which damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant and prompted leaks of radiation.
It all began in the early hours of April 26, 1986, when workers at the Chernobyl atomic power station in the then Soviet republic were carrying out a test on reactor four. Operating errors and design flaws sparked successive explosions.
Radioactive debris landed around the reactor, creating an apocalyptic scene in the surrounding area, while material also blew into the neighbouring Soviet republics of Belarus and Russia and further into Western Europe.
Two workers were killed by the explosion and 28 other rescuers and staff died of radiation exposure in the following months. Tens of thousands needed to be evacuated and fears remain of the scale of damage to people's health.
Moscow stayed silent on the Chernobyl disaster for three days, with the official news agency Tass reporting an accident there only on April 28, after the Forsmark nuclear plant in Sweden recorded unusually high radiation.
Ukraine's post-independence leaders have long complained of the scale of the problem they inherited after the collapse of the USSR.
Mr Azarov said that in Ukraine alone, 2.2 million people are designated as victims of Chernobyl, 255,000 of whom are officially recognised as 'liquidators' who were involved in the clean-up effort.
The death toll related to the disaster has ranged as high as 93,000 fatal cancer cases, Greenpeace said in 2006 when it accused the United Nations agencies of grossly underestimating the toll.
Mr Azarov said: 'Chernobyl left behind social and economic problems which will not go away for years' including massive payments for medical assistance, relocation and compensation for victims.
Ukraine also needs funds to build a new shelter over the destroyed reactor, which is still covered by a Soviet-era sarcophagus.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which is running the project, has yet to win full funding. A conference last week secured €550 million (S$993 million) in new pledges, short of the €740 million still needed.
'For too long, unfortunately, Ukraine remained alone in the Chernobyl disaster,' President Viktor Yanukovych said in a statement to mark the anniversary of the disaster.
In a reference to Japan's disaster, he added: 'Today we are not alone.'
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made a landmark visit to Chernobyl yesterday to take part in memorial ceremonies at the stricken plant, joined by Mr Yanukovych.
At a night service on Monday led by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Kiev, a bell struck at 1.23am - the moment when the explosion went off - and tolled 25 times for the years that passed since the disaster.
Inhabitants of the new city of Slavutych, built to house workers safely after the disaster, lit candles beneath a memorial containing pictures of the rescue workers and plant workers who died in the disaster.
Mr Medvedev said before visiting Chernobyl that he will propose a plan to boost safety at the world's nuclear power plants at the Group of Eight summit next month.
He said: 'Chernobyl will forever remain a symbol of huge human grief.' AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
