Belarus president visits city hit by Chernobyl disaster

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday toured a city badly affected by the Chernobyl disaster, in a visit to mark the 35th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident.

"It's difficult to say whether the pain about the Chernobyl disaster will stay in hearts of our children," Lukashenko said in a speech as he unveiled a memorial plaque in the city of Bragin, a little over an hour north of Chernobyl.

"Therefore, whatever it takes, we must do everything to do give these lands a new life, reviving them," he added.

Lukashenko planted a tree during his visit and held a meeting with regional authorities.

Reactor No. 4 at the power plant 110 kilometers (65 miles) north of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv exploded and caught fire deep in the night on April 26, 1986, shattering the building and spewing radioactive material high into the sky.

Soviet authorities made the catastrophe even worse by failing to tell the public what had happened — although the nearby plant workers' town of Pripyat was evacuated the next day, the two million residents of Kyiv weren't informed despite the fallout danger.

The world learned of the disaster only after heightened radiation was detected in Sweden.

Eventually, more than 100,000 people were evacuated from the vicinity and a 2,600-square-kilometer (1,000-square-mile) exclusion zone was established where the only activity was workers disposing of waste and tending to a hastily built sarcophagus covering the reactor.