Rome, June 10, 2023 – There is another huge time bomb that could explode in the bloody war in Ukraine: Russian army engineers allegedly stuffed the giant with explosives industrial chemical plant Crimea Titanon the peninsula unilaterally annexed by Moscow in 2014. The complaint comes from Ukrainian officials and independent journalistic platforms, as reported by the Kyiv Post.
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Kiev officials have sounded the alarm, stating that if “the Kremlin orders the detonation of the charges, Ukraine and neighboring states will face a man-made disaster potentially worse than Chernobyl”.
The Crimea Titan Chemical Plant (via Twitter @KyivPost)
It seems unlikely that this is actually Moscow’s will, even though Ukrainian military analyst Roman Svitan stated that the Russian authorities in occupied Crimea have already prepared the planting of northern Crimea and it is “very likely that they will blow up the factory to create one toxic chemical barrier if the Ukrainian army gets too close”.
Kherson regional military chief Oleksandr Prokudin in a video posted on Telegram on June 2 said that Russian plans to blow up the plant are well advanced and that if the explosion occurs “thousands of tons of toxic materials would be released”. Spread over an area of 4.7 square kilometers and located near the city of Armiansk, the sprawling Crimea Titan plant was one of the world‘s largest producers of titanium dioxide, a non-toxic industrial chemical widely used in the manufacture of paints, coatings, food supplements, in pharmaceuticals, and as a whitener. The use of titanium dioxide was banned in Europe in 2022.
The chemical is considered by some experts potentially carcinogenic. It is insoluble and deadly to plants and animals using contaminated groundwater. Some byproducts of titanium dioxide production are toxic, including sulfuric acid and sulfuric dioxide gas. Both of these compounds are poisonous and are potentially lethal if exposure is severe.