The former commander of the military unit А1352 in Balakleya Aleksey Kulikov admits that powerful shots will shake the city from three to five days. As told “Today” the military, until the beginning of 2013, the Arsenal systematically unloaded, and after an attempt of sabotage in 2015, the military planned to disperse it in other warehouses.
“I think there is the factor of outside interference. Arsenal in Balakliya is one of the best in the country. It’s not just a base, there is manufacturing, we are working with ammunition. There is a well-trained staff, skilled personnel, modern equipment and means of protection, alarm. Arsenal has become a major springboard to provide ammunition of the forces ATO and played a major role among the objects that perform the task of providing. The armed forces have lost a very serious subject and, from the point of view of our enemy, it was important to eliminate it”, said the expert.
Aleksey Kulikov also noticed that even when he was guidance regarding the practiced actions in case of such emergency, especially schemes of evacuation and elimination.
“We worked a lot in order to do it right. The whole experience of Novobohdanivka and Lozova, of course, were taken into account. I think that the fact that there are no victims one of the indicators of all this work”, says military.
Kulikov also said that in the air will soar all the shells of the ammunition at the time, preserved thanks to the underground vaults type. Such objects on the part of the territory was about five percent.
We will remind, in the night of Thursday, March 23, there were explosions at munitions depots, located not far from the city of Balakleya of Kharkov region, lit up the military base. The first information about the incident arrived about 3 o’clock in the morning. Explosions in the warehouses continued in the morning of March 23.
From the area Blakley already evacuated 20 thousand people.
Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak earlier said that according to available preliminary findings of the cause of the fire and explosions of ammunition in warehouses was a diversion. “One theory is that it is a diversion. In particular, the dropping of the explosive device with UAVs,” said Poltorak. Later , SBU qualified state of emergency in Balakleya as a diversion.
The entrance to the city closed, passenger railway communication is also stopped. The explosion closed the airspace in the 40-kilometer zone for all aircraft.
