Five employees of Kyivgaz, one of the Ukrainian capital’s main gas distributors, have been charged in connection to the gas explosion at an apartment block in Poznyaky residential area in Kyiv in June 2020, which killed five people and injured three. The announcement was made this afternoon on the Facebook page of the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office.
One of the suspects is the first deputy head of Kyivgaz. Also suspected are three chief engineers responsible for gas network operations, as well as the head of security. All five suspects will be placed under 24-hour house arrest and made to wear an electronic tag. A sixth person, who has been residing in the occupied territory of Luhansk Oblast since August 2020, was charged in absentia.
A forensic investigation into the matter reached the conclusion that the explosion was caused by a failure to follow health and safety norms during a gas meter check. This happened during the installation of a bypass system intended to temporarily replace the removed gas meter.
The explosion occurred at approximately 10 a.m. on Sunday, June 21, 2020 at a ten-story block on 1 Solomii Krushelnytskoi Street in Poznyaky, which is in the Darnitskyi district on Kyiv’s left bank. The blast destroyed 16 apartments between the 4th and 9th floors, and damaged a further 40 apartments. The rescue operation of bodies trapped under the rubble lasted two days.
On Aug. 13, 2020, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that every family who lost their home in the explosion had been given new apartments. Between them, they also received a total of Hr 53 million in damages.
The building has been made structurally safe to prevent further collapsing, and to ensure that residents’ personal belongings can be salvaged from the apartments. Once this process is complete, it will be demolished.
In October 2020, builders working on the apartment block found a cache of illegal firearms in one of the building’s apartments.
