Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has invited the CIS heads of state to visit the construction site of the new safe containment structure over the fourth reactor at Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of State in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, on Wednesday.

While speaking about the decision of the council to declare 2013 a year of ecological culture and environmental protection in the CIS, Lukashenko said that the president of Ukraine during a narrow format meeting of the council drew special attention to the implementation of ecological programs "and invited the heads of state to the Chornobyl [NPP] site, where a unique structure is being constructed today - a safe containment structure is being built over the reactor at which the disaster happened."

The Ukrainian president is on a working visit to Ashgabat on Wednesday to participate in a CIS summit.