With regard to the twentieth anniversary of the tragic events at Chernobyl, Mr Putin passed on his words of profound gratitude and his best wishes to the participants in the cleanup operation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant living in Ukraine.
Mr Yushchenko asked Mr Putin to likewise pass on his sincere gratitude to the Russian participants in this heroic operation.
Both Presidents stressed that this courageous act by citizens of Russia, Ukraine and other states prevented a global tragedy from taking place.