Pavlograd Chemical Plant - Russo-Ukraine War
Ukraine became the scene of some of the worst mass-scale violence, including destruction of infrastructure, that Europe has witnessed in decades. Russia attacked energy and water infrastructure in Kharkiv, Zmiiv, and Pavlograd on September 11th and 12th, 2022, that caused mass blackouts and water cut-offs.
There was a massive explosion in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad on the night of 01 May 2023 following a series of Russian strikes. According to General Valeri Zaluzhny, who commands the Ukrainian military, 11 Russian strategic bombers fired 18 missiles at targets in Ukraine. Zaluzhny claimed 15 of these were destroyed by air defenses, including all those aimed at Kyiv, but confirmed Pavlohrad was struck, injuring 34 people including three children. The chemical plant used to store old Soviet-era missiles was believed to be among the targets hit in the barrage that injured dozens.
The Russian military launched a large-scale missile attack against Ukraine's military industry, disrupting production of weaponry and munitions, the Defense Ministry said on Monday. "...[T]he Russian Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched a group missile attack with long-range precision weapons, air- and sea-based, on the military-industrial complex of Ukraine," the ministry said during its daily media briefing, adding "all assigned targets were hit." While the Russian military did not specify which locations had been targeted exactly, Ukrainian media reported strikes in Kiev, Sumy and Dnepropetrovsk regions. The latter has apparently experienced the worst, with a massive explosion reported on the outskirts of the city of Pavlograd.
On 01 May 2023, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the missile strikes were allegedly aimed at Ukrainian military-industrial facilities. And they made it possible to successfully disrupt the production of resources that the Ukrainian army uses. The Russian Defense Ministry had recently shifted its rhetoric and was actively describing strike campaigns, likely trying to portray a proactive approach to rising concerns in the Russian media about the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Russian military correspondents boasted of the success of rocket attacks, saying that missiles fired from strategic aviation managed to hit the Ukrainian air defense systems and the transport hub in Pavlograd.
As a result of the attack on Pavlograd, two people were killed. Also, 40 people were injured. As noted by the head of the Dnepropetrovsk OVA Serhiy Lysak, the youngest victim girl is 8 years old. According to him, the victims have bruises, fractures, incised and lacerated wounds, contusions, poisoning by combustion products. It is also known that two women, aged 45 and 55, were taken to intensive care.
“A new video of the explosion in Pavlograd allegedly confirms that the factory where the old SS-24 accelerators were stored was damaged in the Russian strike. Although it is not good, it was a better scenario," said OSINT analyst Oliver Oleksandr. According to GeoConfirmed, more than 1.8 thousand tons of expired solid rocket fuel are stored at the landfill. "It's been 20 years since the deadline," the source noted.
The OSINT project refered to a January 2020 report by the Ukrainian BBC service, which stated that an explosion at this plant could lead to an environmental disaster not only in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, but also in four other regions. On May 2, GeoConfirmed analysts published a satellite image with the location of the storage facilities and the chemical plant.
The city authorities of Pavlograd on 30 April 2023, denied rumors about a dangerous situation in the city. The executive committee urged Pavlograd residents not to believe Russian propaganda and not to respond to fake information. "There is no chemical danger in the city. Don't panic. Do not spread fakes. Don't ignore further air alarms!"
Yevgeny Yakovlev, a senior researcher at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Doctor of Technical Sciences, explained the risks of an environmental disaster in the event of an explosion at a chemical plant in Pavlograd to journalists from the I-UA.tv channel. "The main environmental danger is that rocket fuel is stored there and the water supply system is located nearby. "The Pavlograd industrial-urban agglomeration is very vulnerable, given its saturation with potentially dangerous objects: a landfill for toxic rocket fuel residues (heptyl, and possibly hydrazine), a missile and artillery range, a metallurgical plant, a railway junction, etc.," he noted.
In addition, according to him, the city has a developed river network, which can contribute to the accelerated migration of pollutants and their entry into local sources of drinking water supply (soil wells, shallow wells, ponds, springs). Therefore, he noted, attention should be paid to the predominant use of protected artesian water resources, in particular the Pavlograd water supply.
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