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The former Soviet state's treatment of the victims in the aftermath of the blast is still, for some, an open wound. Authorities took two days to inform the world and their own people about the accident.

Firefighters, conscripts plant workers and volunteers were sent in to extinguish the fire and clean up the radioactive material, some equipped only with shovels. It was not until two weeks after the explosion that the first Soviet official said that there had been the "possibility of a catastrophe".

"It was a tragedy for Ukraine, and the main tragedy for me is that our government forgot about us, forgot about the people of Chernobyl," Vera Kudrya, 60, who worked at the plant. She noted the crowd was smaller than in previous years.

The Ukrainian parliament held a memorial session devoted to the anniversary. Volodymyr Lytvyn, the speaker, said: "Today’s ceremonies to mark the anniversary of the accident do not, unfortunately, mean we can say farewell to Chernobyl. It will remain with the Ukrainian people for more than one generation to come."

Ukraine has been left to deal with a legacy of contamination, ill health among its people and a reactor that will remain radioactive for centuries. Thousands of people suffered health problems from the radiation. The concrete sarcophagus around the remains of the reactor is leaking and needs to be replaced, a $1.2 billion project which remains on the drawing board.

Meanwhile, estimates of the number killed due to radiation exposure very wildly. The World Health Organisation puts the number at 9,000. Greenpeace, which has accused officials of covering-up the true scale of the deaths in an attempt to restore confidence in nuclear power, predicts an eventual death toll of 93,000.

Ukraine’s Health Ministry said in a report released on Wednesday that 2.34 million Ukrainians in eight cities and more than 2,100 villages were suffering health problems.

However, scientists say that radiation levels in the area have fallen by a hundredfold. The UN's priority is now to overcome a culture of welfare dependency and drug use and to transform the population from victims into survivors.

Mr Yushchenko said that his Government supports this move. He has called for scientific studies to determine how the land could be used, suggesting it could become a storage site for used nuclear fuel.

Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the anniversary was a reminder of the need for a common approach to nuclear safety, especially as many countries are planning to build new reactors.

The UN says that 20 years on, the legacy from Chernobyl is not the feared hundreds of thousands of cancer-related deaths. It is a paralysing shadow of malaise, drug-dependency, state-dependence.

"The psychological impact is now considered to be Chernobyl's biggest health consequence," said Luisa Vinton, a senior project manager for the United Nations' Development Program, which helped produce a comprehensive study of the accident's impact.

"People have been led to think of themselves as victims over the years, and are therefore more apt to take a passive approach toward their future, rather than developing a system of self-sufficiency.

"There's a sense of waiting for rescue from a rescuer that never comes. It's a real impediment to people being able to take charge of their lives again."

In Belarus prosecutors summoned the country’s main opposition leader today hours before a rally denouncing its President, Alexander Lukashenko. The country's opposition traditionally holds its biggest rally of the year on the disaster's anniversary.

The explosion covered nearly a quarter of Belarus’s territory with radioactive fallout, and the opposition contends that the government severely underplays the damage done to the country by Chernobyl.

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