KIEV: Around 20,000 people were evacuated on Thursday in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region near the border with Russia after a massive fire at a military arsenal.

The fire at the depot in Balaklia, which holds large-calibre artillery rounds and is one of Ukraine’s largest, erupted early on Thursday, prompting the evacuation and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman to fly to the area to monitor the blaze, which is still raging. An area the size of 40 kilometres around the depot has been closed for flights.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Stepan Poltorak said at a briefing that the fire had likely been staged by Russian or separatist saboteurs who probably used a drone. Poltorak said there was no immediate word on casualties.

The separatist authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk have rejected Poltorak’s accusations, arguing in statements carried by the Interfax news agency that the blaze was likely rooted in corruption and incompetence among the Ukrainian military.

There was a fire at the same arsenal in 2015 but the military managed to quickly put it out before munitions started detonating. The huge depot held about 138,000 metric ton of ordnance.

Ukraine’s chief military prosecutor, Anatolii Matios, also said on Facebook that the blaze was sparked by an act of sabotage and dismissed charges that the fire was an attempt to cover up ammunition theft from the depots, saying it had been protected by nearly 1,000 guards.

Ukraine’s defence ministry said controls on the border with Russia have been tightened.

Former Russian lawmaker shot dead

A former Russian lawmaker who became a vociferous critic of Moscow following his recent move to Ukraine was shot and killed in Kiev on Thursday, prompting another war of words between the two countries.

Denis Voronenkov, who testified to Ukrainian investigators and criticised Russian policies after his move to Kiev last fall, was shot dead by an unidentified gunman near the entrance of an upscale hotel in the Ukrainian capital.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2017