An ammunition depot catches fire in Kharkiv. Once again…
(B2) A fire followed by a series of explosions broke out on Thursday (May 3) at an ammunition depot near Kharkiv, close to separatist territories in eastern Ukraine, local authorities said. The fire broke out for an unknown reason during demining work in the Balakliïa depot and affects the territory of about 35 hectares, said the state service for emergency situations.
A district evacuated because of the smoke
The explosions became rarer in the evening, sounding about once a minute, but the shrapnel did not come out of the enclosure of the depot, noted an AFP journalist on the spot. The Kharkiv regional administration announced the evacuation of an area near the depot, above which columns of black and white smoke could be seen.
No casualties to report
The incident has so far caused no casualties, assured the national police, who cordoned off the roads near the depot. Some 150 firefighters and rescue workers were deployed to the scene of the incident, according to the state service for emergency situations.
The fifth fire in three years
This is the fifth major fire in three years affecting a Ukrainian army depot. In March 2017, a gigantic fire had triggered explosions of ammunition in this same Balakliïa depot, killing one person and injuring five.
Comment: As with every such outburst, all eyes are on eastern Ukrainian separatists like the Russians, who are the first to profit from further disorganization in the Ukrainian ranks. But the management of arms depots, quite lax, like the rampant corruption in Ukraine (regularly denounced by the European Union), has also been regularly questioned.
(NGV with AFP)
