Ukrainians gather to mourn and remember

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian mourners carried single red carnations and flickering candles during a solemn ceremony early today to remember the 1986 Chernobyl explosion, an event that continues to scar this ex-Soviet republic 20 years later.

"My friends were dying under my eyes," said Konstantyn Sokolov, a 68-year-old former Chernobyl worker whose voice was hoarse from throat and lip cancer. Sokolov was among hundreds gathering for a middle-of-the-night ceremony today in the Ukrainian capital, which President Viktor Yushchenko attended.

Sokolov said his memories of that time "are very terrible."

In Kiev, bells tolled 20 times starting at 1:23 a.m., marking the time of the explosion at Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear-power station. Orthodox priests led the mourners in a somber procession.

Closer to Chernobyl in Slavutich — the town built to house Chernobyl workers displaced in the accident — the commemorations began an hour earlier to coincide with Moscow time, which was used in the then-Soviet republic of Ukraine at the time of the accident.

Residents placed flowers and candles at a monument dedicated to Chernobyl as sirens blared.

Ukraine hosted competing scientific conferences on Tuesday as this nation of 47 million and the international community tried to make sense of the catastrophe.

Some Ukrainians, however, sought out more private places to remember.

"The whole country grieves and the whole world joins us in this grief," Lena Makarova, 27, said as she visited the Chernobyl museum in Kiev.