More than 300,000 civilians might get hurt if Kiev forces blow up the remaining chemical tanks in Rubezhnoye, Lugansk People’s Republic People’s Militia spokesman Ivan Filiponenko said.
Earlier in the day, retreating Kiev forces blew up chemical tanks at a plant in Rubezhnoye.
More than 40,000 tons of sulfuric, hydrochloric and nitric acid and ammonia are stored on the premises of a hazardous chemical company which produces explosives. Blasting them will cause irreparable damage to regional ecology and destroy all living things within the 30-kilometer radius. It will affect the areas of the settlements still controlled by the Ukrainian army such as Lisichansk, Severodonetsk, Zolotoye and Seversk where more than 300,000 civilians live,” Filiponenko said.
LPR Head Leonid Pasechnik said that the military operation was running according to the plan, and that LPR militia units, supported by Russian troops, were completing the mop-up in Popasnaya and Rubezhnoye.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation to protect Donbass residents from Ukrainian aggression. Earlier, LPR and DPR Heads Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin asked the Russian leader to provide military assistance. As of now, some 80 percent of the LPR territory has been liberated.
The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. The members of the Contact Group have announced ceasefire more than 20 times since the autumn of 2014. Kiev forces regularly violated the truce opening fire with large caliber artillery, mortars and tank guns which were to have been withdrawn from the contact line under the accords. *i*s
