The participants in the Chernobyl accident cleanup on April 26 commemorated 25 years of the event. In the morning, they laid flowers at the monument to Ruler Stephan the Great in Chisinau, Info-Prim Neo reports. “I took part in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident in 1986, 1988 and 1989. A saw everything and went through all the stages. We were afraid as we knew what was going on there. I developed an actinic disease and remained without a kidney. I left my health there,” said one of the participants in the cleanup, Ion Ungureanu. Another participant, Dumitru Dubov said April 26 is a sad day for those who were sent to Chernobyl. The number of participants in the Chernobyl accident cleanup decreases every year. “I did not know much as they hid the truth. The military men knew more. I worked near the reactor, where there was the explosion. The soldiers did most of the work. I realized where I was only when I reached that place,” said Dumitru Dubov. More than 200 military units and a contingent of 340,000 soldiers and officers of the former USSR were mobilized to deal with the consequences of the catastrophe. About 3,500 of them were from Moldova.