The municipality of Chisinau Friday will stage a series of activities to commemorate the victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, 27 years after this catastrophe. The activities will start will laying of flowers at the monument to Ruler Stephan the Great.

Contacted by IPN, senior specialist of the Social-Humanitarian and Interethnic Relations Division Gheorghe Bilici said that the commemoration events start at 10.00. After laying flowers, the participants will stage a march from the center of Chisinau to Trandafirilor St in Botanica district, where there is a square in memory of the Chernobyl accident victims. The march will end with a commemoration meeting of half an hour. Afterward, those attending will be taken by minibuses to a restaurant in Chisinau, where a commemoration meal will be served.

The Chernobyl disaster occurred on April 26, 1986, at 01.23. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western USSR and Europe.

The disaster is widely considered to have been the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles. The official Soviet casualty count of 31 deaths has been disputed, and long-term effects such as cancers and deformities are still being accounted for.

Though certain areas in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone will remain closed, most of the affected parts are now open for stabilization and economic activities.