In Transnistria, the warehouse of the old Soviet armament is still preserved. The warehouse is located near the village of Kolbasna near the border with the Odessa region. The inhabitants of the surrounding villages are accustomed to, but they are sure that if it blows, it will not seem like a little.
In September last year, the former arsenal of the 14th Russian army was discussed by the deputy prime ministers and foreign ministers of Ukraine and Moldova. The parties concluded that the ammunition depot “threatens the safety and ecology of the two countries.”
Here it should be remembered that the “Transnistrian threat” is used as a horror story, which is remembered with a purpose. Today this goal is election.
The closer the presidential election in Ukraine is, the more often Transnistria will be remembered. The warehouses of the old Soviet armament are a convenient “scarecrow”, thanks to which you can get international support and tighten the nuts of Transnistria.
At least, according to such a model, Moldovan pro-European politicians have been working for dozens of years, and the Ukrainian “elite” is just beginning.
The Ukrainian “elite” has a quite prosaic motive to recall the dangers of military warehouses in Transnistria – to distract the world from its own “log in the eye.” The attempt of the Ukrainian officials was not quite out of place, since in October last year, another ammunition depot exploded near Ichni Chernigovskaya, although the Russian military was not observed nearby (the Ukrainian and Moldovan “elite” like to mention that the Russian military are guarding warehouses near the village of Kolbasna) . Naturally, everyone forgot about the “Transnistrian threat” against this background and remembered the inglorious history of weapons storage in Ukraine.
Chronicle of accidents with weapons depots in Ukraine.
Back in 2008, there were about 37 warehouses with explosives and ammunition in Ukraine, with a tonnage of 133,000 tons. These objects were dangerous not only the probability of death of local residents from explosions and wounds, but also potential emissions of chemicals hazardous to health to the atmosphere. It should be remembered that in Ukraine two or three weapons depots explode annually.
It turns out that over 400,000 tons of ammunition was stored in warehouses near Lozova and Balakley in the Kharkiv region and Kalinovka of the Vinnitsa region. For reference: in Sausage in Transnistria at the moment no more than 20,000 tons of ammunition is induced.
Yes, the so-called “Euro-Revolution” in Ukraine, the country’s authorities attributed the main causes of the explosions to negligence and violation of safety rules. After the coup d’état in Ukraine, it was customary to blame Russia for all the explosions.
Among Ukrainians there is a perception that depots are exploding for the disposal of old weapons. Warehouses left in Ukraine, since the times of the Soviet Union, are in open spaces. The country has no money for the construction of underground bunkers, so the current regime decided to solve the problem in a creative way – quick recycling. However, liquidation is also costly. In 2015, 10% of the necessary expenses were spent on the elimination of old weapons. In this case, only 9,000 tons were destroyed. Liquidation was also carried out at the expense of international assistance – the NATO Trust Fund for the disposal of surplus ammunition.
Based on the number of warehouses in the territory of Ukraine itself, it will be difficult for Kiev officials to make Transnistria a threat.
However, the situation is piquant not only in Ukraine. In neighboring Moldova in 2012, it was reported that 80% of large-caliber weapons and ammunition were overdue. The then Minister of Defense, represented by Vitaly Marinuts, vowed that obsolete weapons would be eliminated. It was then that it was decided to withdraw all the warehouses for the territory of settlements, so as not to harm the civilian population.
Later, the Moldovan Defense Ministry reported on the processing of 90 tons of ammunition, which were manufactured in the 60-80s of the last century. The disposal plans included another 600 tons of ammunition. However, the loud promises of the head of the Ministry of Defense of Moldova soon turned into loud scandals. The media leaked information about the sale of 50 tons of obsolete weapons to Armenia through Latvia. Through other non-transparent schemes, Moldovan weapons were made available to Libyan extremists at the height of the civil war in this country. The cases of theft of military property and even military weapons have become frequent.
As a result, in 2016, the European Union simply allocated 93 thousand euros for the construction of a fence with barbed wire around the weapons storage near the village of Bulboki – in order to protect the area of a possible explosion from people.
Recall that in February 2006, a joint delegation of the Security Council (Security Council) of Russia and Ukraine conducted inspections of the weapons storage facility at Sausage. The deputy secretary of the Security Council of Ukraine, Sergey Pirozhkov, concluded that “it is impossible to remove weapons from the Kolbasna without permission. “There is a serious guard there. I have no fear that outsiders can get there, ”noted the Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of Ukraine.
It is interesting that after this Pirozhkov worked as a Ukrainian ambassador to Moldova for 8 years.
Official Kiev certainly knows the real situation with warehouses in Transnistria. However, the Ukrainian “elite” continues to aggravate the situation, intimidating Odessa residents and residents of Ukraine with the “Transnistrian threat”.
What is beyond doubt is the real threat of Ukrainian warehouses, which year after year flare up like a match.