Arms Depot Explosion Seals Off Major Russian Highway

MosNews ^ | 05/06/2004 | MosNews

[Velveeta]

This isn't insider trading, is it? LOL

[Liberty Valance]

this highly unwelcome turn of the situation

uh huh

[samadams2000]

naw..just a solid call for spec capital. very volitile but probably bottomed today. Trend is up with a lot of upside. pull up a chart. dont get hurt. but it should have a good yr.pull up a chart and read yahoo finance message board on it.

[Velveeta]

Indeed.

[Velveeta]

I pulled up the chart and will certainly take a closer look. Thanks!

[nw_arizona_granny]

I had seen a few news articles that Ukraine and Russia were not acting friendly, so went and searched Google for a:

ukraine russia connection

found this history of the trouble between them, not the best source, but still a good article.

http://www.exile.ru/177/war_nerd.html

[nw_arizona_granny]

Thank you for the info.

Might be tempting, but I only buy real estate, never stocks.

[tet68]

I don't think they'd have evacuated ALL those villages
JUST for "explosive" ordinance.

[struwwelpeter]

Everyone here is convinced that "boeviki" (military) is going to kill us all.

A friend came up with an interesting theory - perhaps they're blowing up the depot to divert attention from a severe deficit.

An article from not so long ago, about missing missiles: here

[Velveeta]

perhaps they're blowing up the depot to divert attention from a severe deficit.

Sounds like a likely theory. Quite the coincidence that the Cesium traffickers were caught the same day as the explosion too, don't you think?

[Velveeta]

Latest updates:

Five dead in Ukraine arms depot blasts, massive blaze continues


MELITOPOL, Ukraine : At least five people died and nine were injured when a fire caused a series of massive explosions at a huge munitions depot in Ukraine, the country's emergency situations ministry said, adding that the continuing blaze would not be easy to put out.

Medical officials in the region of Melitopol, the southeastern town near where the blasts occurred late on Thursday, said three of the dead were elderly people who died of heart failure due to the sudden explosions.

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The depot was still blazing early on Friday, and sporadic explosions could be heard.

Ukrainian officials said the fire, at a depot where large quantities of munitions inherited from the former Soviet Union were stocked, would not be easy to extinguish.

"Such a fire cannot be put out just like that," said Defence Minister Evhen Marchuk, speaking on a local television station.

He added that neighbouring Russia was sending a specialist team to help combat the blaze, and the United States, which is a major aid contributor to Ukraine, had also offered to help.

Ukraine's head of the army chief of staff, Alexander Zatynaiko, said earlier on UT-1 public television that no military personnel had died in the explosions. The defence ministry had earlier said a guard at the base had been killed.

He said the security services and the public prosecutor would launch an inquiry into the exact causes of the incident.

The defence ministry in the Ukrainian capital Kiev said earlier that the explosions were triggered by a fire that started at around 1:00 pm (1000 GMT) in a depot containing anti-tank rockets.

The base where the blast occurred was near the village of Novobogdanovka, in Ukraine's Zaporozhye region.

The authorities said they had closed the railway line linking Moscow to the Crimea via Zaporozhye and halted road traffic through the area.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine inherited a total of 184 military arms depots from the Red Army. Most of the munitions were moved to a military base in Zaporijia, south-eastern Ukraine.

On October 10 last year, several thousand people were evacuated from their homes after a series of explosions ripped through a munitions dump at Artyomovsky in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

The explosions, also caused by a fire, shattered the windows of several apartment blocks and scattered debris as far as four kilometres (2.5 miles) away but caused no casualties.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/83689/1/.html

[Velveeta]

Human factor behind Ukraine depots blast, minister says

07.05.2004, 13.01

MOSCOW, May 7 (Itar-Tass) - Ukrainian Defense Minister Yevgeny Marchuk said according to preliminary information, a human factor was behind the cause of the fire and resultant explosions at ammunition depots in the Zaporozhye region.

There are reasons supporting this version. "Military prosecutors are investigating the tragedy on the site," Marchuk told the Inter television channel.

Some projectiles flew away at a range of 1.5 to 2 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion, while the range of missiles dispersion reached five to six kilometers.

Ukraine inherited 184 ammunition depots from the former Soviet Union. Such fires as the current one /in the Melitopol district/ cannot be extinguished, the minister said, they are contained by different methods using special technologies and equipment.

According to the Defense Ministry, Ukraine has to scrap more than 200,000 tonnes of ammunition and 24,000 tonnes of missiles.

The republic's armed forces keep a total of three million tonnes of ammunition.

The ammunition depots in the village of Bogdanovka, Melitopol District, contained up to 4,500 conventional railroad cars of ammunition. Chaotic explosions in the area continue. The situation remains dangerous.
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=788119&PageNum=0

[Jimmy Valentine]

I am smelling some serious cover up here.

Does anyone know whether or not there are nukes stored there?

Regards,

[Velveeta]

Situation is not getting any better over there:

Power alert after Ukraine blast


Thousands have been evacuated from their homes
Europe's largest nuclear power plant is on alert after a fire caused a blast at an ammunition depot in Ukraine.
Five people died in the accident at the store, which was used to keep military weapons including rocket launchers and anti-tank mines.

Debris was thrown 10km by the explosions and blasts are still being heard 24-hours after the fire started.

There are safety fears as the scene is about 40km away from the power station and 10,000 people have been evacuated.


The BBC's Helen Fawkes, in Kiev, says the area looks like a war zone, according to satellite pictures of the scene.

Eyewitnesses say the explosions at a military base at the Zaporizhzhya region in south eastern Ukraine sent flames up to 300 metres into the air and showered surrounding villages with burning debris(snip)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3693785.stm

[Velveeta]

Shells continue to go off in Ukraine

15:31 2004-05-08
The Ukrainian army ammunition storage near the Novobogdanovka settlement, the Melitopol district of the Zaporozhye region (southern Ukraine), is continuing to burn. Once in every two-three minutes, 100-millimetre anti-tank shells explode there.

According to the press service of the Ukrainian defence ministry, now the section of the depot where these ammunitions are stored is ablaze. The maximal reach of a shell fired from a cannon is about eight kilometres.

In the past few hours, the number of explosions has decreased due to the heavy rain. However, rescuers and the military still have no access to the hotbed of fire and cannot extinguish it to prevent other ammunitions from exploding.


*****According to the source, the fire has not yet approached the sites where more powerful reactive shells are stored for reactive systems of salvo launching - Grad, Uragan and Smerch - having the reach of up to 40 km.*****


According to a spokesman of the Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry, it can change if the situation in the accident zone changes. In particular, if the wind changes, the fire may switch on the sections with other ammunition.
http://newsfromrussia.com/accidents/2004/05/08/53810.html

[Velveeta]

This is not over yet. I still wonder if this is where the Cesium that was stolen was stored???

(snip) Ammunition, an amount of up to 4,500 train cars, was kept at a military unit's depots located near the village of Novobogdanovka in the Melitopol region.

(snip)Earlier, the Defence Ministry said that a terrorist attack theory was ruled out.

When asked whether the fire could be caused by an attempt to conceal stealing, the minister said that the investigation was to clear it up.
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=791263&PageNum=0

[Velveeta]

How are things going for you over there, Peter?

[struwwelpeter]

Nothing here in the news about the depot anymore. Holiday weekend has started and everyone's out partying.

Fortunately, Bednaya Nastya (1820s soap opera) is off the air, replaced by a talking car that shoots down airplanes. Instead of the usual Soviet war movies, Kyiv's ICTV showed Mel Gibson in Patriot last night.

Which is probably why these seasoned citizens are so glum.

[Velveeta]

Oh, dear. They don't appear to be in a festive mood.

I read that those evacuated will be heading back to their homes and that the danger has subsided. Glad to hear it!

[struwwelpeter]

Last night one of the news channels sent reporters to interview the people after they returned. Lots of anger, one woman going on about how, when the explosions began, the school director simply told all the kids to run away as fast as they could. Meanwhile parents were running to school with no idea where the kids had gotten off to.

During the "Ch.P." (emergency situation) the whole area was cordoned off and closed to civilians, and when the residents returned many of them found that their homes had been looted - by the soldiers. One lady carried on about how 'they' had opened all her jars of preserves, taken two jackets, etc.

Still no figure on casualties. Government insists on 5, 3 of which died of "infarkty" due to stress, but some people interviewed claim otherwise. Railroad is open again, so that vacationing katsapy (Russians) can spend lots of foreign currency in Yalta.