Ukraine: 25 Years of Chernobyl Tragedy

Residents lit candles, and bells tolled 25 times (4/26/2011), when the world's worst nuclear accident recalled the history of Chernobyl.

Reverend Kirill lead, near a monument which was established to commemorate the members of fire brigades and a janitor who died from severe radiation poisoning.

"The world has never known such disaster in an era of peace as great as occurred at Chernobyl," said Kirill.

"It's hard to imagine a result of this disaster if it were not for the heroes that we are remembered in our prayers this time," he added.

Mass started at 1:23 am, when reactor exploded on April 26, 1986, which spewed radioactive clouds and made ​​thousands of people were evacuated in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia.

Reactor explosion at Chernobyl was 400 times the radiation released from the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Hundreds of thousands of people sick and forests become polluted. 600 thousand people exposed to Chernobyl radiation, 4 thousand died of cancer.

"Our lives changed drastically. Chernobyl is a beautiful city and we have a very good job. In the short time it was lost. Now, we still have to grieve for our children and our grandchildren who suffer pain from radiation that we experience , "said Larisa Demchenko, who lost her husband in the disaster.