KIEV, Aug. 6 – The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources has initiated the creation of the Chernobyl Biosphere Reserve, minister Andriy Mokhnyk said at a briefing.

According to Mokhnyk, the Chernobyl biosphere reserve with an area of about 230,000 hectares is supposed to include the major part of the exclusion zone around Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP), which accordingly will be divided into three functional areas - the protected one, buffer and anthropogenic. The division will take into account the level of radioactive contamination, natural landscape and presence of industrial enterprises.