SS-24 missile exploded in Dnepropetrovsk region

The explosion of hard missile fuel took place last Sunday, in Pavlograd engineering work, Dneporpetrovsk region. The details of the event became known only now: the administration of the work and local authorities tried to keep secret the incident in the military work, where now, according to the state programme, SS-24 missiles are being dismantled.

According to the reports, there are no victims, however the explosion broke all panes in the neighbouring houses at a distance of 5 km. The administration of the work proposed their version: “a volumetric explosion of combustion product took place when pyrotechnics and segments of hard fuel were burned.” The citizens of Pavlograd, however, do not exclude, that that was a missile’s stage which exploded. Now, a commission investigate the reasons of the explosion. According to Pavlograd office of Ukrainian Emergency Ministry, concentration of harmful matters in air and in soil does not exceed the norm.

In the Pavlograd work, strategic SS-24 missiles are being annihilated on the money the US has apportioned in exchange for the Ukraine “non-nuclear” status.

As it became known, this is not the first incident connected with the SS-24 utilization in Pavlograd. For example, at the beginning of the year, activity of a criminal group headed by the deputy director of the work were uncovered. Within two months of their activity, the criminals removed 6 tons of the SS-24 parts, which were sold as usual scrap metal.

The range of SS-24 missile is 10 thousand km. Every missile could carry at least 10 nuclear warheads. In the Soviet times, in Ukraine, 43rd army of Missile Strategic Troops was deployed. In Ukrainian territory, there are 46 SS-24 missiles’ launchers.

Alexandr Gorobets PRAVDA.Ru Ukraine

Translated by Vera Solovieva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/06/12/42542.html