Burned about 40 thousand tons of ammunition.
In artillery warehouses in Kalinovka near Vinnitsa, where 26 September, a fire occurred with a massive detonation of ammunition, suffer consequences. Over the past two years this is the fourth fire in artillery warehouses of the Armed forces. In war and when in our country there is no domestic production of ammunition, to waste shells as a result of fires at stockpiles — a luxury. Journalists have found out, wouldn’t the explosions in warehouses to ammunition shortage in the Ukrainian army.
KALYNIVKA. The fire on 48th Arsenal in Kalinovka, near Vinnitsa, began the evening of September 26 and quickly led to large-scale detonation of stored ammunition. According to some, the warehouse has a total area of over 1000 hectares and is the second in importance after Arsenal in Balakliya, which burned in March 2017. It was also reported that in a warehouse near Vinnitsa are stored including ammunition reactive systems of volley fire (MLRS) “Smerch”, “Uragan” and “Grad”.
The situation in the vicinity of a burning Arsenal on the night of September 27, resembled a war zone. Explosions were heard 200 km away, and the glow from the fire could be seen for 50 kilometers. The seriousness of the situation and said the actions of the authorities: from the surrounding villages were evacuated about 30 thousand people, was closed to traffic in the region and even restrictions on air traffic in a radius of 50 km from the epicenter of the explosions. As he wrote, “Today”, it was the largest evacuation since Independence.
Immediately to the emergency was forwarded to the special fire tanks. Efforts to extinguish the fire quickly failed, 28 September at Arsenal was only heard single explosions. Fortunately, during the incident there were no casualties — minor injuries only got two people.
THE EXTENT OF THE DAMAGE. There are several versions of how the damage was caused by fire in Kalinovka. The military noted that 70% of the territory of the warehouses generally were not affected by the fire. “This Arsenal could potentially make 140 thousand tons of ammunition. There were 83 thousand tons. 68 tons — it was ammunition, ready to use, the rest of the components to ammunition and scrap”, — said the Minister of defence Stepan Poltorak.
Secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on national security and defence Ivan Vinnik, citing sources in the defense Ministry, said that the fire in the village destroyed up to 40 thousand tons of ammunition. Also Igor Vinnik noted that the bombings have caused to the state damage for the sum of 800 million dollars.
As explained by military expert Mikhail Zhirokhov, 125-mm tank shells are scarce “product” in our army. “The need is partly closed by a supply from abroad,” explained Zhirohov. However, according to experts, 125-mm shells in Kalinovka is practically not affected because we were in underground vaults. “Was lying on top of the shells to the tanks T-34-85 (outdated tanks during the Second world war. — Ed.) and substandard mortar”, — said the expert.
But in any case, “non-combat” casualties of the munitions, our country can not afford. As you know, after the loss of the Luhansk cartridge plant in the summer of 2014 Ukraine has not been able to establish its own production of ammunition. According to experts, we need to protect not only the 125-mm tank, but rockets for MLRS “Grad”, “Smerch” and “Hurricane” and 152-mm artillery shells, which are used in some self-propelled and towed guns.
Developing ammunition production in Ukraine, emphasizes the Director of information and consulting company Defense Express Serhiy Zgurets. According to him, exports to Ukraine of munitions large and small calibers is a big hassle. Help mostly poles and Lithuanians, who understand only too well what the enemy is opposed to Ukraine.
That’s why it became the popular version that the warehouses in the village caught fire as a result of sabotage. Indeed, over the past two years this is the fourth fire at a military Arsenal. In October 2015, burned the warehouses in the village of Svatovo in the Luhansk region, in March 2017 thundering explosions in Balakliya, and four days before Kalinovka burned the military stores near Mariupol. In fairness it should be noted that in respect of the causes of fire in the HCP concluded that the negligence of officials, and the incident near Mariupol occurred whether the result of arson, whether by negligence of local residents, burned the grass in the area.
HOW MUCH IS LEFT OF THE SHELLS. As already reported, “Today”, in July 2017, President Petro Poroshenko has promised that the country will still be built a new ammunition plant — on this project it is proposed to allocate UAH 1.4 billion. However, while it is not built, the Ukrainian army is forced to fight in the Donbass for the reserves remaining after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Mainly on the territory of Ukraine remained the shells and missiles that were taken from the former Warsaw Pact countries. According to various estimates, as of 2008, warehouses of the Ministry of defence was kept up to 2.5 million tons of ammunition. However, back in 2004 at that time the chief of engineering troops of Armed forces of Ukraine Vadim Kovalskiy said that about half a million tons of this amount must be disposed of due to expired shelf life and the threat of overcrowding in warehouses.
In the framework of the State target program for disposal of conventional munitions, which was adopted in 2008, Ukraine is expected to 2017 to destroy 474,2 tons of shells and rockets. But due to lack of funding, this program was able to run less than half.
According to the “White book” of the Ministry of defence in 2008-2013 disposed of about 200 thousand tons of ammunition, and in 2014, after the outbreak of war, the destruction of the shells could not be considered.
Thus, before the beginning of hostilities in the Donbass in the Ukraine still had more than 2 million tons of shells and rockets.
How much were lost in fires on articledo over the past two years? At Arsenal in Svatovo were stored 3,5 thousand tons of ammunition, and in balakliia — about 138 thousand tons. As explained by Mikhail Zhirokhov, fire in Balakleya destroyed approximately 105 thousand tons of various ammunition. Even if we assume that in Kalinovka exploded about 40 thousand tons of ammunition (the damage from the fire near Mariupol is not yet known), then the total losses for the last two years will not exceed 150 thousand tons, that is, all these losses don’t even take us beyond the recycling program, adopted in 2008.
However, individual items of ammunition, for example for the same 125-mm shells, the situation looks less optimistic. “Kalynivka — is sophomoric compared to Balakliya, where he burned about 80 thousand tons of tank ammunition”, — said Mikhail Zhirokhov. According to him, in Balakleya was the main supply of scarce 125-mm shells.
But even these losses will not lead to immediate “slug famine”. The precise amount of ammunition remaining in the depots, is now secret information. But on the basis of data from open sources it can be concluded that the fires have not yet caused irreparable damage. But it is important to make sure that they didn’t happen… “the Remaining amount of ammunition, most likely, Ukraine will suffice on 5-6 years”, — believes Zhirohov.
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