A warehouse in which quantities of ammonium nitrate were stored was hit by a Russian strike in the Kharkiv region, in northeastern Ukraine, local authorities said.
"The explosion in the Kharkiv region poses no threat to the population," the governor of the neighboring Donetsk province assured on his Telegram page.
The post was accompanied by a photo showing an orange cloud rising over fields. "A Russian shell hit a warehouse in the Kharkiv region where, according to initial information, ammonium nitrate was present," the governor clarified. "The smog may be scary, but there is no reason to panic," he added."
Ammonium nitrate, a substance to which the devastating explosions that leveled the port of Beirut in August 2020 were attributed, is used mainly as a nitrogen fertilizer but also for the manufacture of explosives.
Ukraine announced earlier that its forces had repelled Russian soldiers in the Kharkiv region and regained control of part of the border with Russia.
Heavy casualties for Russians, writes the New York Times
During the battle for the Seversky-Dionets bridge, the Russians suffered the heaviest losses in the entire war in Ukraine, according to The New York Times
While trying to cross the Seversky Donets River in the Lugansk region, the Russian army lost more than 400 soldiers, The New York Times writes, citing data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The paper notes that this battle was one of the bloodiest battles during the entire Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"On May 11, Ukrainian artillery destroyed Russian floating bridges as well as Russian troops with their equipment densely concentrated around them, reportedly killing 485 people and destroying more than 80 tanks," ISW reports.
A total of 550 Russian military personnel were sent to the area to cross the river with the aim of encircling the Ukrainian armed forces near Rubezhny from the northwest.
The Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform, citing statements by the head of the military command of the Lugansk region Sergei Gaidai on Telegram, speaks of 1000 Russian servicemen killed in this battle and about 100 tanks and other equipment destroyed.
"That shameful operation, which they carried out in Belogorovka, will go down in the history of this war between Russia and Ukraine as their defeat in the Lugansk region," he said."
"Because the armed forces of Ukraine destroyed almost 100 units of equipment and killed two Russian brigades, which means almost a thousand soldiers," Gaidai wrote. On May 14, the Russian Defense Ministry said it destroyed floating bridges and a Ukrainian army unit "that tried to cross the Seversky Donets River."
Source: KYPE
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