Crimea hit by another release of toxic chemicals
Rospotrebnadzor (Russia’s Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare) recorded a new release of harmful substances in Armyansk located in the annexed Crimea, Dozhd reported.
According to Dozhd, the new release of toxic substances took place on September 14.
The city authorities introduced an emergency measures due to the harmful substances emissions at the Crimean Titan plant. The administration of Armyansk announced that the concentration of harmful substances exceeds the maximum allowed level by more than 5 times.
According to the media, in early September about 4 thousand children and adults were evacuated from Armyansk and sent to children's health institutions. A two-week school vacation was announced in the city.
The head of the Armyansk administration, Vasiliy Telizhenko stated that the department overseeing the emergency operations decided to extend school holiday for another week.
"We are sending children who did not have time to leave or have returned from somewhere to children's health institutions. Work is in progress to send all the remaining ones," said Telizhenko.
The first release of an unknown substance into the atmosphere in the north of the Crimea occurred in late August. Due to the release, an oily coating appeared on the roofs of houses and tree leaves.
Ukrainian border guards recorded the presence of toxic substances in the air not far from the Chaplynka border crossing. Soldiers who patrol the administrative border with the Crimea in the Kherson region complained of a headache, nausea and sore throat.
On September 4, the Crimean authorities decided to stop production at the Titan plant in Armyansk for two weeks. The so-called "head of the Republic" Sergey Aksyonov also decided to evacuate all the school and preschool children from the city. The Crimean authorities explained that the city has exceeded levels of the sulfurous anhydride concentration.
Ukrainian ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova appealed to the UN agencies to investigate to the sharp deterioration of the environmental situation in the occupied Crimea.
On September 8, the Russian Ministry of Transport and Communications informed that there are no cases of chemical poisoning among the population of the Kherson region and there is no need for evacuation of the population.
The department noted that, to prevent possible negative consequences for children's health, about 2 thousand people will be sent to the city of Skadovsk.
The State Border Guard Service said that after a chemical release at the Crimean Titan plant in Armyansk, 61 Ukrainian border guards asked for medical help.
On September 9, the Ukrainian border guards reported that 45 people left the Crimea for Kherson region to seek medical assistance.
The Ukrainian investigators put forward three versions of the air pollution in the Kherson region and the annexed Crimea. Kyiv accused Russia of “a deliberate air pollution by Russia to destabilize the situation in the Kherson region in order to restore the flow of water to the occupied Crimea."