VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Hundreds of Lithuanians on Tuesday marked the anniversary of Chernobyl nuclear disaster by protesting plans of neighboring Russia, Belarus and their own government to build new nuclear power plants.

Lithuania has traditionally been a pro-nuclear power nation and until 2009, when this Baltic state closed down its nuclear reactor, it was the world's second most nuclear power-dependant nation, after France.

The small country, which deeply distrusts Russia after five decades of Soviet occupation, has vowed to build a new plant in its bid to retain energy independence from Moscow.

However, a survey after the Fukushima nuclear plant accident in Japan, suggests Lithuanians' support for nuclear power has plummeted.

According to a poll by the Lithuanian magazine Veidas, 88 percent of some 500 respondents said they oppose plans to build a new power plant — an increase of 47 percent since January. Some 42 percent said the Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster had made them change their minds. The March 28-30 poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

On Tuesday, some 500 protesters marked the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe by marching down Vilnius' main avenue wearing radiation suits and carrying signs such as "Yesterday Japan, today Lithuania."

"Every nuclear power plant is somehow similar — it may turn into Fukushima one day," said Linas Vainius, a protest organizer.

Russia and Belarus are moving to fill the energy gap in the Baltic region and have announced plans to build two nuclear power stations near Lithuania. Russia's will be in the Kaliningrad enclave just 10 miles (15 kilometers) from Lithuania's western border, while the one in Belarus will be located 30 miles (45 kilometers) from the capital Vilnius, where some 600,000 people live.

Russia's Rosatom corporation, which has pledged that their technology is safe, says the two plants will meet strictest safety requirements. However, many Lithuanian fear the plants will be unsafe as Lithuanian experts and government officials have claimed the environmental impact studies were conducted poorly and allegedly contain flaws and deficiencies.

"I was sent to Chernobyl as a young soldier and was lucky enough to leave that place quickly, with only minor radiation," Jaunius Kazlauskas, a 45-year-old demonstrator said. "Now I live in Vilnius and hear that Russia is building a nuke plant near my town. We must stop that."

Last week Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius suggested that Lithuania, as well as Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia, should adopt legislation forbidding the sale of electricity from nuclear power plants that fail to meet certain safety requirements.

In Latvia, President Valdis Zatlers, who took part in the Chernobyl clean-up operation in 1986 as a soldier in the Soviet Army, led a memorial ceremony at a hospital in Riga, the nation's capital.

Zatlers described the Chernobyl disaster as the "greatest civilian catastrophe in mankind's history" and an event that "forces us to think about the significance of man's life and the limits of his abilities."

In Estonia, government officials attended a commemorative church service led by the country's tiny Ukrainian community.

In the Finnish capital, Helsinki, a few hundred demonstrators marched in a peaceful protest against nuclear power in the Nordic nation, which has four nuclear plants.

Finland is also building a 1,600-megawatt European Pressurized Reactor — one of the first of its kind — and has approved the construction of two more reactors and a nuclear waste storage site in its bedrock.