Ukraine must create a full nuclear cycle and enter the global level in treating spent nuclear fuel, without Russia's participation, Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Ostap Semerak has said.

"This is the issue of national security and economic viability. I don't see why we should pay money for storing nuclear fuel in Russia if we can do it ourselves," he wrote on his Facebook page over the weekend.

He said that he will hold a discussion of the issue with the energy and coal industry minister, National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom and intends to attract donor countries to the project.

"The task is to prepare opportunities for the removal and disposal of fuel from reactor four," the minister said.

He said that the Chornobyl zone should be made as open as possible.

"The Exclusion Zone, which is today associated only with tragedy, should become the territory of changes, reforms, innovations. It should be declared ecologically safe territory and made transparent to dispel fears and ignorance," he said.