NATO employee killed in Ukraine blast

KIEV (AFP) — Three people, including a NATO observer, were killed Thursday when ammunition exploded at a military depot in northern Ukraine, officials said.

Two other people were wounded in the blast that happened as ammunition which had been brought for disposal at the facility in the northern Sumy region was being unloaded.

“A NATO representative was among those three killed in the explosion,” Yuliana Lazarenko, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s military prosecutor, told AFP.

She added he was a Ukrainian citizen who oversaw ammunition disposal as part of a joint Ukraine- NATO program.

Ukraine still hosts vasts stockpiles of surplus and obsolete Soviet-era ammunition and weapons, including landmines and small arms.

The western military alliance has been funding the safe disposal of the arms caches for several years.