This was reported by the investigative journalism site www.elarchivo.com
The strategy of mining vast territories of Ukraine serves Russia to extort money from the invaded country and its defenders.
The sixth part of the territory of Ukraine is mined by the soldiers of the Russian army according to data from the Association of Sappers of Ukraine. This association has calculated that at the moment in Ukraine the mined territory is more than 82 thousand square kilometers.
Starting on February 24, the soldiers of the Russian army began to blow up the Ukrainian land. According to unspecified estimates, about 1/6 of the territory will have to be cleared, this is more than 82.5 thousand square kilometers. The potentially most dangerous areas are shown on the map. They are located in the south of the country, in areas where there are many large industrial enterprises, as well as in the kyiv and Chernihiv regions.
The mining of the Crimean Titanium Plant
With this action, the Kremlin commits blackmail. Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine commented on the mining of the «Crimean Titan» chemical plant by soldiers of the Russian army. If the mines in the titanium plant were to explode, the fumes and vapors that the explosion would generate are highly toxic and poisonous, it would be a disaster equivalent to the Chernobyl catastrophe). An explosion of the mines planted in the vicinity of the «Crimean Titan» chemical plant, which is located near temporarily occupied Armyansk, is another blackmail of the Russian invaders. This opinion was expressed by the representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Andriy Yusov.
“Russia continues with terrorist practices. In this case, we are talking about blackmail, as in the case of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. Blackmail, which is aimed at signaling to the whole world that “it will be as we want, that is, the Russians leave, we have stolen Ukrainian territories, and now let’s urgently negotiate the end of the war, or everything will be destroyed, flooded, blown up. In this regard, you need to understand that there is no point in getting involved in these provocations with terrorists and this blackmailing of Putin is no longer believed and perceived. Neither in terms of nuclear blackmail, nor in its other forms,” Andriy Yusov stressed on the air of the FREEDOM TV channel.
Yusov noted that the safety of the Crimean Titanium plant, other objects and the population in the occupied territories can only be ensured by their prompt release and the return of Ukrainian legal power to all lands within the 1991 borders. “This means more assistance to Ukraine and an early military defeat of Russia, and to bring to justice the war criminals of the Putin regime. But the Russians are really working out these scenarios, they can be different, from putting a company out of commission by destroying it, so that it would be impossible to restore their work, or creating man-made disaster as a result of their terrorist attack. We are dealing with a terrorist state and we must work through different scenarios,” he added.
The explosion of mines planted on the territory of the Crimean Titanium Plant could lead to a catastrophe on the scale of the Chernobyl nuclear power plantwith acid rain. On the morning of June 2, the Kherson district police department reported that soldiers of the Russian army were planning to carry out a provocation at the Crimean Titanium Chemical Plant, which is located on the isthmus on the way to occupied Crimea.
According to the head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, Alexander Prokudin, Russian army soldiers planted explosives on the territory of the Crimean Titanium plant and the area around it is mined.
What would be the consequences of an explosion?
The consequences for Ukraine of an explosion at a chemical plant can be catastrophic, and the area affected by dangerous chemicals can reach hundreds of kilometers. Alexander Prokudin said that a possible explosion, which the Russians could stage, would lead to the release of thousands of tons of toxic substances into the atmosphere, posing a deadly danger to people and the environment.
The President of the Association of Environmental Professionals, Lyudmila Tsyganok, agrees with this. According to her, despite the fact that Crimean Titanium was previously the largest producer of titanium dioxide in Eastern Europe, the company also produces other chemicals: mineral fertilizers, sulfuric acid, aluminum, sulfates, liquid sodium glass, iron sulfate , among others.
“This is a series of very dangerous substances. If titanium is heavy enough (and difficult to carry on wind currents), there are other elements that are more volatile. So the danger really exists,” he explained. The ecologist pointed out that the magnitude of this danger depends on many factors: weather conditions, the strength and direction of the wind, as well as the moment when the Russian invaders can resort to such a provocation.
Where is Crimean Titanium found and what are the risks?
The company is located on the territory of Crimea, in the northern part of the peninsula on the Perekop Isthmus on the Sivash coast, next to the Hell Peninsula, and covers an area of 4,785 hectares. It is connected by an access railway to the Vadim station of the Odessa railway. The company is located a few kilometers from the Kherson region.
So far, there is no clear understanding of how big the consequences could be due to a possible explosion on the territory of the plant. In his urgent appeal, the head of the Kherson Regional State Administration, Prokudin, said that in the event of an explosion of the plant, the residents of Crimea, up to seven regions of Ukraine, as well as the territory of Turkey and the Russian Federation itself, will suffer the consequences.
At the same time, Lyudmila Tsyganok says that in the event of a mine explosion, and also depending on the direction of the wind, the territories of the Kherson, Nikolaev, Odessa and Crimean regions may suffer. At the same time, under other factors, if the wind is directed to the east, then the spread of chemicals can reach the Zaporozhye Territory, Mariupol, Gorlovka and Kramatorsk. “Therefore, the risk is colossal, not without reason they fear an environmental catastrophe. Even individual groups of scientists argue that this could be a second Chernobyl,” she added.
Valentin Shcherbina, vice president of the Association of Environmental Professionals Public Authority for Electricity and Water, doubts that the territory could be contaminated enough to reach Turkey. “I doubt that the maximum concentrations of these compounds would reach there (Turkey) in such quantities. But the Ukrainian flora and fauna and, in general, all living things in southern Ukraine, of course, will get it precisely because of water migration,” Shcherbina believes.
In his opinion, transport by water, rather than air transport, represents a greater threat, since the chemical particles may be too heavy to be transported over long distances. At the same time, environmentalist Tsyganok says that there are sedimentation tanks at the Titan plant in Crimea, where sulfuric acid waste, which is a toxic substance, accumulates. This sump must be constantly filled with water. If the concentration of water suddenly starts to drop (and in case of accidents, we understand what the risks are), then sulfuric anhydride flies through the air,” he says.
What to do in case of chemical danger: signs of poisoning and an algorithm of actions
The Kherson Regional State Administration distributed a memorandum explaining the procedure in case of chemical hazard. According to the memo, first of all, you need to protect your respiratory organs and find ways to protect your skin. After that, if possible, immediately leave the area of chemical contamination. If this is not possible, you should immediately seal the signs of poisoning with dangerous chemicals can have a different manifestation. The main symptoms include a sore throat, runny nose, cough, and sometimes allergic reactions. At the same time, poisonous vapors can cause convulsions, loss of consciousness, as well as death from cardiac arrest and paralysis.
According to Lyudmila Tsyganok, the consequences of inhaling this poison can cause baldness, partial loss of vision, among others. In addition to people, acidic compounds can cause damage to the nature around them. “Possible loss of crops, where these acid rains fall. These substances, combined with moisture, immediately form acid rain… Dead cattle, birds may appear. They are instantaneous reactions from the environment, by which a person can understand that an ecological disaster has occurred, she explained.
Tsyganok also adds that water can carry dangerous chemicals and be felt for many years. “It can be quite a long period, because everything can depend on the scale, the area of the damage, and if, for example, sedimentation tanks explode, it will be much more serious than if there is just a dangerous leak. substances into the air. It’s hard to say hypothetically, but the scoring may continue for decades, he added.
At the same time, environmentalist Valentin Shcherbina briefly commented on the consequences of such an accident: “It will be an ecological disaster, and on a rather serious scale.”
How to understand that an accident occurred on the Crimean Titanium
Lyudmila Tsyganok says that the first sign that a catastrophe has occurred can be not only the reaction of the body, but also changes in the environment. “There may be darkness around. All these dangerous substances can rust the surface of the ground or cars. Shrub and tree leaves, especially young ones, can also suddenly turn yellow. There will be a smell of acid, ”she explained to herself.
The ecologist says that clouds with chemical compounds, that is, rust clouds, can also be dangerous because they are associated with sulfur dioxide. “It is a substance that, when interacting with water, forms sulfuric acid. That is, it is a volatile substance, but as usual, people act – they take wet wipes or masks, and when interacting with moisture, the minimum amount of moisture combines with gas, and this particular sulfuric acid is formed. You can’t breathe it in because it’s poison,” Tsyganok said.
It should be noted that environmental experts such as the Kherson Regional Military Administration urged to remain calm and not succumb to Russia’s attempt to undermine society by resorting to such provocations. In either case, the Kherson Regional Military Administration urged to follow up on new announcements from regional and national authorities related to this issue.
Recall that the first reports about the mining of the Titan plant in Armyansk appeared on May 31, when the Atesh partisan movement reported about it. In 2018, Russia already resorted to the provocations of an environmental disaster at the Titanium plant in Crimea. Then the company released dangerous substances, as a result of which almost 550 children and adults from the Kalanchatsky and Chaplinsky districts of the Kherson region were taken away for rehabilitation.
One of the signs of the release was the fact that all metal objects in the Armyanske houses were covered with sticky rust, about which experts also warn this time. In addition, 61 Ukrainian border guards suffered from chemical poisoning at the administrative border with the temporarily occupied peninsula. room in which you are closing windows, chimneys, ventilation hatches and cracks in window and door frames.