The Ukrainian head of state, Volodymyr Selenski, today commemorated the victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster 34 years ago. He and some government members placed flowers in a restricted area at a memorial for the disaster relief workers at the time. „The Chernobyl disaster is, without exaggeration, a disaster on a planetary scale,“ said Selensky.
Forests and grasslands have been burning in the contaminated exclusion zone in the ex-Soviet republic for almost three weeks. It is the most serious fire in years.
During the visit to the restricted area, the president also checked the extinguishing work. On the anniversary of the disaster, more than 1,000 firefighters tried to extinguish the sources of the fire. It has been said that around 1,000 kilometers of fire protection aisles have been created with heavy equipment from the army. Rain had favored the fire fighting the previous night. According to the Ukrainian authorities, more than 11,000 hectares of forest have burned down so far.
