Military Prosecutor Blames Sabotage For Ammo Depot Blasts In North Ukraine

A fire and blasts that ripped last month through an ammunition depot near the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv were an act of sabotage, a regional military prosecutor said.

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th November, 2018) A fire and blasts that ripped last month through an ammunition depot near the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv were an act of sabotage, a regional military prosecutor said.

"We can now say that the explosions were a result of sabotage by unknown people," Hryhorii Riabenko was quoted by the UNN news agency as saying at a press briefing on Wednesday.

Blasts at the depot, holding almost 70,000 tonnes of ammo, prompted a massive evacuation on October 9. No casualties were reported. The incident was initially treated as negligence.

Several arms and ammo depots in Ukraine were hit by fires in the past few years. A blaze in the Kharkiv region in March 2017 led to one death and five injuries. A fire in the Vinnytsia region seven months later hurt two people and caused evacuation of 30,000 from nearby villages.