Poroshenko asks NATO for help in demining Balaklia

Published March 24, 2017 at 10:19 am

A picture taken on March 23 shows smoke billowing after a series of explosions that hit overnight a military ammunition depot near the city of Balakliya, in the Kharkiv province of eastern Ukraine. Ukraine said that a fire raging at a munitions depot in the country's east, which the military blamed on an "act of sabotage", could continue for up to a week.

Photo by AFP

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has ordered the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry and the State Emergency Service to ask NATO for help in demining the ammo depot ablaze in Balaklia in Kharkiv region.

“I’ve given urgent instructions to the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry and the State Emergency Service to ask NATO for assistance in Balaklia’s humanitarian demining,” Poroshenko said on Twitter on March 23 evening.

Explosions at the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s ammo depots near Balaklia began in the early hours of March 23.

Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said the explosions were continuing on about half of the depots’ area, and the emergency may last from three to seven days.