Sizable ammo depot burns in Ukraine
KIEV, Ukraine — One of the Ukrainian army’s largest ammunition depots caught fire overnight after what was probably an act of sabotage using a drone, an official said Wednesday, setting off gigantic explosions and forcing the evacuation of about 30,000 people.
Like a lethal fireworks display, rocket artillery and tank shells flew out of the depot in all directions, tracing glowing arcs through the night sky and illustrating — if a drone is indeed to blame — the growing role of the devices in combat.
The blasts, in the town of Vinnytsya, about 160 miles southwest of Kiev, posed a serious danger to air traffic, passing trains and nearby communities.
The depot holds about 200,000 tons of ammunition, Ukrainian authorities said, and although it was unclear how much was at risk, the firepower was on clear display. As warehouses blew up, gigantic, apocalyptic fireballs rose high above the site.
The airspace around the site was closed, and train traffic was diverted. By Wednesday afternoon, two people had been injured. It was not clear how long the depot might burn.
Ukraine, which is locked in a conflict with Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country, has been the site of several similar episodes this year, though the fire on Wednesday was the first to occur far from the conflict zone.
Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency classified the incident as sabotage.
A presidential adviser, Yuriy Biriukov, wrote on Facebook that a drone could have been used to touch off the explosions, adding that, “We are at war.”
Biriukov wrote that the fires had so far broken out only at army depots where ammunition was kept in open areas; areas where ammunition was stored in bunkers or hangars, and thus inaccessible to drones, had not been affected.