Ukraine claims ‘possible sabotage’ in mass munitions fire

More than 12,000 people were evacuated after ammunition stored at an arms depot in northern Ukraine began exploding early Tuesday and set off a huge fire, authorities said.

Security services said they were investigating “possible sabotage” in the incident at a defense ministry depot near the village of Druzhba, around 135 kilometers northeast of Kiev.

Emergency services said they had no information on any deaths, and regional authorities said more than 60 people required medical help for smoke inhalation.

Grey and white smoke rose up from the horizon on Tuesday morning, an AFP photographer saw, while explosions were going off every one to two minutes.

A defence ministry official said the fire was raging in five storage areas, covering about 10 percent of the total of about seven square kilometers.

The fire and explosions began around 3:30 am local time (00:30 GMT) at Number Six depot, the emergency services said.

Four explosions went off in different parts of the depot before a fire broke out, the deputy head of Ukraine’s General Staff Rodion Tymoshenko said, suggesting this meant the incident could be “sabotage,” a thinly veiled jab at Russia.

Kiev forces have been fighting proRussian separatists in the east of the country since 2014 in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people.

More than 12,000 people were evacuated from the area at risk, the emergency services said.

President Petro Poroshenko called a meeting of the heads of security forces and promised to give residents all the necessary help, his spokesman wrote on Facebook.

Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman traveled to the scene and chaired a meeting of emergency services officials.

“The main thing is to preserve people’s lives. Whatever’s destroyed, we will rebuild,” he wrote on Facebook.

Authorities closed the airspace in a 30-kilometer radius around the site, as well as rail and road traffic.

More than a hundred firefighters worked at the scene, while the defence ministry sent in a firefighting tank.