A Russian airstrike near a Ukrainian chemical plant on Monday resulted in a leak of toxic ammonia gas, according to a Ukrainian official.
The leak was reported at 4:30 a.m. local time Monday at the Sumykhimprom chemical plant in the suburbs of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, according to Sumy Oblast Gov. Dmytro Zhyvytsky. The governor added that a 3-mile radius around the plant was considered to be hazardous.
Ukrainian authorities later said the leak posed no threat to the population and that the leak had been fixed.
Russian military officials telegraphed Monday’s attack by planting the seed in the media that Ukrainian nationalists were plotting a false flag chemical attack in Sumy.
“Nationalists have placed mines in ammonia and chlorine storage facilities at the Sumykhimprom chemical plant in Sumy in order to poison the Sumy region residents in case Russian troops enter the city,” Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, alleged on Saturday.
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Mizintsev also alleged on Saturday that a secondary school in another region of Ukraine was going to be used to stage a chemical weapons attack.
“In the settlement of Kotlyarovo, [Mykolaiv] region, militants of nationalist units are plotting a provocation with the use of toxic chemicals. For these ends, they have placed containers with toxic chemicals in the building of a secondary school, which will be exploded when Russian forces approach the settlement,” Mizintsev said.
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Exposure to high enough concentrations of ammonia in the air can result in immediate burning of the eyes, nose, throat, and respiratory tract and can result in blindness, lung damage, or death.
No injuries or deaths have been reported as a result of the ammonia leak in Sumy.
