Overnight into Sept. 27, a Ukrainian armed forces ammunition depot near the town of Kalynivka in Vinnytsya Oblast, some 170 kilometers southwest of Kyiv, caught fire, setting off numerous massive blasts and damaging the surrounding area.
According to some witnesses, the explosions could be seen from some 40 kilometers away. At least seven buildings in the town have been badly damaged by shell fragments, the emergency services reported.
The military say at least 83,000 tonnes of ammunition are stored in the unit – mostly 152- and 122-millimeter artillery projectiles, 125-millimeter tank rounds, and 120-millimeter mortar shells and Grad rockets.
The massive explosions paralyzed transport in the region – in the early hours of Sept. 27, all principal roads and railways around Kalynivka were blocked by the police and National Guards units, and a 50-kilometer wide no-fly zone around the burning army depot was imposed.
As many as 30,000 civilians living inside the 10-kilometer zone around the depot had already been evacuated as of Sept. 27 noon. Two women were reported to have sustained minor injuries.
Currently, 691 servicemen from the army, the emergency services, police, and National Guard, using 152 vehicles, are involved in the response to the disaster.
Ukraine’s SBU security service spokesperson Olena Gitlyanska said on Sept. 27 that the service was categorizing the incident as an act of sabotage.
