Ukrainian Armed Forces Say Sabotage Most Likely Cause Of Chernihiv Munitions Depot Fire

Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Rodion Timoshenko said on Tuesday that he considered sabotage as the most likely cause of the fire that broke out at a military warehouse in Ukraine's Chernihiv region earlier in the day

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th October, 2018) Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Rodion Timoshenko said on Tuesday that he considered sabotage as the most likely cause of the fire that broke out at a military warehouse in Ukraine's Chernihiv region earlier in the day.

Early on Tuesday, a blast occurred at the ammunition depot located near the Chernihiv's settlement of Ichnya. According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the explosion intensity amounted to one-two blasts per second. No casualties have been reported. The Military Prosecutor's Office of the Central Region of Ukraine has launched criminal probe into the case. The Ukrainian Security Service said that it did not rule out sabotage as a possible cause of the fire.

"Two explosions at a time, and then, in five minutes, two more explosions � this means that this was probably sabotage. If there had been a single explosion at the storage facilities, or if it had happened in daytime, if people had been working there, then we could have cited other versions as more likely ones," Timoshenko said at a briefing that was broadcast by Ukrainian tv channels.

He added that as of 09:30 local time (06:30 GMT) five ammunition storage facilities of the depot had been seized by fire.

Timoshenko went on to say that 50 percent of weaponry had been removed from the depot.