A massive explosion hit Donetsk late on Feb. 8, killing Russian-backed troops and destroying equipment. The incident at the Donetsk State Chemical Plant has been called by some observers the biggest blast during Russia’s war against Ukraine.
According
to preliminary information, 20 Grad multiple rocket launchers and 30
vehicles with ammunition were destroyed. Some 200 separatists were
also killed by the Ukrainian artillery, Dmytro Yarosh, leader of the
Right Sector nationalist party, wrote on Facebook on Feb. 8.
The
Ukrainian leadership tends to overestimate separatist casualties as
part of the information war, and it is very difficult to correctly
count them unless insurgents are killed on Ukrainian-controlled
territory, Vyasheslav
Tseluiko, an expert at the Center for Army, Conversion and
Disarmament Studies, said by phone.
Borys
Filatov, a member of the Vekhovna Rada, wrote on his blog on Feb. 8
that the chemical plant was shelled with Smerch multiple rocket
launchers by the same Ukrainian unit that had destroyed insurgent
aircraft earlier in January.
“We
threw two fishing rods with two worms,” Filatov said, citing the
metaphor Ukrainian troops allegedly used for the attack.
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A Ukrainian-led attack in Donetsk killed as many as 200 Russian-backed soldiers, according to some sources, although that figure cannot be confirmed.
However,
there was no official confirmation of the Ukrainian army’s
involvement in the incident and the number of casualties and
destroyed equipment.
Vladislav
Seleznyov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s General Staff, said by phone
that the cause of the explosion is not clear yet. The plant could
have been attacked by Ukrainian troops, Ukrainian guerrilla fighters
in Donetsk or separatists, he added.
“Apparently
stewed meat from Russia’s 13th humanitarian
convoy exploded,” he joked. The joke was an apparent reference to
Russia’s use of the so-called “humanitarian convoys,” which are
sent regularly to Ukraine and are not vetted by any international
organizations. The Kremlin insists that the trucks contain food and
other necessities, but a recruiter of mercenaries from Ekaterinburg
had said
the convoys are used to ship arms and fighters to Ukraine’s
territory.
The
National Defense and Security Council said on Feb. 9 that 1,500
Russian soldiers and 300 units of military equipment had crossed the
border into Ukraine on Feb. 7-8, when the latest “humanitarian
convoy” arrived to Donbas.
Anatoly
Stelmakh, a spokesman for the anti-terrorist operation, denied
Ukrainian troops’ involvement in the Donetsk explosion.
“We
know about this explosion but Ukrainian artillery didn’t carry out
this strike,” Stelmakh said on Feb. 9, as cited by
the censor.net news
site. “Given that this is intelligence data, we don’t comment on
this information.”
Kyiv
Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko contributed to this report.
Kyiv
Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected].
