Simultaneously, Serhij Bondarchuk confirmed that, prior to the fire, a shipment of shells was sent to Chad under contracts with this African country. “As regards Georgia, no ammunition was shipped to Georgia from this storage depot,” Ukrspetsexport general director stressed.

At 14.30 on Aug. 27, fire was reported at the ammunition depot in the Kharkiv oblast, just 300 m away from the town of Lozova.

“The military could not put out the fire and soon an underground shell storage depot caught fire,” deputy Kharkiv oblast Governor Serhy Storozhenko said.

According to the defense ministry, about 95 thousand tons of shells were kept in the depot.

The fire was extinguished late Aug. 28, with no loss of life reported.

Strangely, the fire at an ammunition depot, this time in the Kharkiv oblast, coincided with the accusations of Pres Yushchenko and his insiders of illegal supplies of military equipment, arms and ammunition and Verkhovna Rada’s intention to investigate arms sales and organizations involved in this trade, says the leader of the Communist party, Petro Symonenko, his party press service reports.

The fire at the army ammunition depot is an attempt by the Yushchenko regime to cover up its illegal sales of munitions, same as it happened at the depots in Novobohdanivka and Oleksandrivka, when the inventory of the depots was on track, Petro Symonenko said.