A citizen of Ukraine has died in the Beirut explosion on Aug. 4, which killed over 150 people, injured more than 6,000 and left large sections of the Lebanese capital in ruins.
William Azar, a 32-year-old economist, had exited the office of his employer, the consulting firm KPMG’s Beirut branch, to head home when the explosion occurred, Ihor Ostash, Ukraine’s ambassador to Lebanon wrote on Facebook on Aug. 8.
According to the ambassador, Azar was planning to get married at the time of his death. His mother is a resident of Kyiv.
Previously, Ukrainian media reported that no Ukrainians had been killed in the explosion. In an Aug. 7 list of victims, the Lebanese Ministry of Health identified Azar, who appears to be Lebanese-Ukrainian, only as Lebanese.
On Aug. 5, a Facebook account dedicated to news from Aintoura, a Lebanese municipality located 18 kilometers to the northeast of Beirut, announced that the town “had received news of the death of her young son, William Nabil Azar.”
In an Aug. 8 post, KPMG Lebanon also memorialized Azar, describing him as “a true friend, brother and colleague.”
“William, we will all miss your genuine personality and beautiful smile,” the company wrote.
Besides Azar, some Ukrainians suffered minor injuries in the blast, according to Ostash. Dozens also suffered damage to their homes in Beirut.
On Aug. 6, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that 30 Ukrainians had requested financial assistance after the blast, according to the Slovo i Dilo news site.
“We will give them the needed support. To this end, we have a request from 30 people to receive small monetary assistance,” he said. “Currently, we are working on solving this problem, too.”
The Ukrainian Embassy in Beirut largely avoided damage during the blast because it is located several kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion, according to Ostash. Only one window was damaged.
“All our embassy employees are alive and well,” he wrote on Aug. 4.
On the afternoon of Aug. 4, two extremely powerful explosions erupted at the port of Beirut, leveling the port itself and damaging buildings multiple kilometers away.
The explosion was apparently caused by 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate that were stored at the port for years.
In the wake of the Beirut blast, Pivdennyi Port in Ukraine’s Odesa Oblast admitted that it stores 9,600 tons of the potentially explosive chemical, which is used in mineral fertilizer. Another Ukrainian seaport, Mykolaiv Port, said that it had previously stored 3,100 tons of ammonium nitrate in 2018-2019.
Read More: Following Beirut blasts, Ukrainian port admits it stores ammonium nitrate, too
The Pivdennyi Port administration said that the chemical was not dangerous when properly stored, and that the port “complies with all technological requirements.”
The Ukrainian government announced that all companies that store the chemical will now undergo a safety check.
