Tanks, Aircraft Used To Battle Fire At Ukrainian Arms Depot
By RFE/RL
Kyiv says it has sent in specialized tanks and aircraft to fight a massive fire as explosions continued at an arms depot in northern Ukraine on October 10.
More than 12,000 people were evacuated after ammunition stored at the depot near the town of Ichnya began exploding early on October 9, sparking a huge blaze.
Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) said earlier that it was looking into all possible leads, including sabotage, at the depot about 135 kilometers northeast of Kyiv.
The Armed Forces General Staff announced on October 10 that the guarding of all military depots across the country had been beefed up.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said at a cabinet meeting on October 10 that he has "no doubt" that the explosions near Ichnya "were attacks on our depots."
According to Poltorak, the depot contained about 70,000 tons of ammunition over 680 hectares, an estimated 43,000 tons of which were "ready to use."
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said on October 10 that two engineering vehicles, four firefighting military tanks, and two planes are involved in extinguishing the fire.
There have been several explosions and fires at Ukrainian arms depots in recent years, amid fighting between government forces and the Russia-backed separatists who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, a few hundred kilometers southeast of the depot site.
The war has killed more than 10,300 people since it began after Russia seized Crimea in 2014 and fomented separatism following the ouster of Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled in the face of months of pro-European protests in Kyiv.
Cease-fire deals signed in Belarus’s capital, Minsk, in September 2014 and February 2015 have failed to end the conflict.
In March 2017, a massive deflagration at a munitions depot near the eastern city of Kharkiv prompted the evacuation of about 20,000 residents living within a 20-kilometer radius of the site.
And in September 2017, more than 30,000 people were evacuated after artillery warehouses on a military installation exploded in the Vinnytsya region, southwest of Kyiv.
Authorities have frequently blamed the blasts on sabotage, and the government has allocated 100 million hryvnyas ($3.6 million) for the protection of the country's ammunition storage facilities.
With reporting by UNIAN, obozrevatel.ua, and AFP
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for October 10, 2018. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage. Thanks for reading and take care.
Hungary protests Ukrainian military moves, "death list" of dual citizens:
By RFE/RL
A diplomatic spat between Hungary and Ukraine has escalated, with Budapest summoning Kyiv's ambassador to protest what it called a "death list" targeting ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine as well as military movements on their common border.
Ukraine's "anti-Hungarian policy has moved to a new level," Hungarian Foreign Ministry official Levente Magyar told reporters in Budapest on October 10. He accused Kyiv of inciting tension between the two neighbors.
Hungary, which is a European Union and NATO member, has cited a growing number of grievances against Kyiv in reportedly attempting to block Ukraine's efforts toward closer cooperation with the Western bloc and military alliance.
"We call on our EU and NATO allies...to thoroughly examine what is going on in Ukraine," Magyar said.
Magyar claimed that an estimated 100,000 ethnic Hungarians living in Ukraine's western Transcarpathia region that borders Hungary have been "frightened" by such developments as the recent emergence of a list of some 300 names on the website of the Ukrainian nationalist group Myrotvorets.
He said the list includes Hungarian officials -- including Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto -- as well as ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia alleged to have taken up dual citizenship, which is illegal in Ukraine.
"It is a death list, because it names Ukraine's supposed enemies," Magyar said. "It has happened before that people who appeared on such a list became murder victims."
Magyar also expressed "concern" that the website of the Ukrainian parliament has posted a citizens petition that calls for the "collective deportation" of dual citizens.
He also said that Ukraine had moved military units to the Hungarian border region, and was building barracks there.
Responding to reporters' questions, Magyar said that Ukrainian Ambassador Lyubov Nepop denied Kyiv's involvement in either the list or the petition, and said the troop movements were to protect local citizens.
Officials in Kyiv did not immediately respond to Budapest's allegations.
The latest diplomatic clash follows a flare-up after an undercover video emerged last month that appeared to show a Hungarian diplomat in Ukraine handing out passports to ethnic Hungarians.
Kyiv responded by expelling the Hungarian consul in Transcarpathia, prompting Budapest in turn to expel a Ukrainian consul in Hungary.
Relations between Hungary and its eastern neighbor began deteriorating a year ago after a language bill was approved by Kyiv that Budapest said limited ethnic Hungarians' rights to receive education in their mother tongue. (w/RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, AFP, Interfax, and Europeiska Pravda)
Kyiv says two soldiers killed in east:
By RFE/RL
Ukraine says two of its soldiers have been killed and three wounded in clashes with Russia-backed separatists in the country's east.
The Defense Ministry said on October 11 that the fighting also left six separatists dead and 10 wounded.
The separatists violated a cease-fire 28 times during the previous 24 hours, firing antitank missiles, machine guns, grenade launchers, and mortars, a statement said.
Meanwhile, the separatists claimed that Ukrainian government forces violated the cease-fire 25 times, but that nobody was hurt.
Since April 2014, more than 10,300 people have been killed in fighting between Ukrainian government forces and the separatists who control parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Cease-fire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords -- September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed to resolve the conflict -- have failed to hold.
A new cease-fire agreement was reached in late 2017 and was meant to begin on December 23, but both sides have accused each other of repeated violations since then. (w/Interfax and TASS)