In pictures: the Chernobyl anniversary

Fifteen years after the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, people have been remembering the catastrophe in Ukraine and around the former Soviet Union.

A woman places a candle at a memorial in Slavutich, the town where Chernobyl workers lived

A priest prays for the victims during an anniversary service marking the disaster

Some of the relatives are overcome by emotion during the ceremonies

Widows weep by the graves of their husbands who died in the disaster

The village of Duduchi in Belarus was abandoned after the disaster, but on remembrance day residents have the chance to return

Zoya Gnetova walks around her house which she has been forced to leave due to high radiation levels

Relatives far away in Moscow also remembered the catastrophe

The plant itself was closed last December and will be entombed in a massive sarcophagus