Widows remember the men sent into Chernobyl's horror

A bell tolled 25 times today in the capital of Ukraine for the victims of the Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear accident in history.

A church service began in Kiev at 1.23am local time, when the explosions on April 26, 1986, sent a radioactive cloud over much of Europe and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.

Several hundred Ukrainians, many of them widows of Chernobyl workers who were sent into the plant to contain the fallout, listened to Russian Orthodox patriarch Kirill as he said: "It's hard to say how this catastrophe would have ended if it hadn't been for the people, including those whose names we have just remembered in prayer."

"Our lives turned around 360 degrees," said Larisa Demchenko, 64. She and her husband worked at the plant, and he died nine years ago from cancer linked to radiation.

"If only you knew how much our hearts ache for our children, how many sick grandchildren there are, how many couples without kids," she said.