KIEV - Thousands of victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster marched in the Ukrainian capital today as the 18th anniversary approaches.

Many of the five-thousand people who turned out in Kiev suffered from radiation sickness after the explosion of a nuclear reactor on April 26th, 1986.

Many of the marchers carried portraits of relatives or friends who died, either in the accident itself or from illnesses linked to it. The blast and subsequent fire spread heavy radiation over much of northern Europe.

Some 44-hundred deaths in Ukraine are blamed on the accident; among the hardest-hit groups were the workers sent in to clean up after the blast.

Nina Kharchenko, center, cries as she carries a portrait of her deceased husband, victim of the Chernobyl catastrophe, during a march in Khreshchatyk street in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, April 24, 2004
AP Photo/Andrey Lukatsky
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