Russia planning ‘worse than Chernobyl’ disaster at Ukraine chemical plant?

Russian army engineers have rigged explosives to an industrial chemical plant in Crimea next to “a toxic acid lake reservoir”, Ukrainian news outlets reported.

Oleksandr Prokudin, Ukraine-appointed head of the Kherson region’s military administration, warned that detonating the explosives would result in a disaster worse than than the Soviet Union’s 1986 accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, The Kyiv Post reported.

Russia has been accused of targeting Ukrainian infrastructure throughout the more than 15 months of invasion that began in February last year. This week, Ukraine blamed Moscow for destroying a Soviet-era dam in Nova Kakhovka, a city in Ukraine’s Kherson. This resulted in massive flooding and necessitated the evacuation of thousands of civilians in Ukraine.

Ukrainian military analyst Roman Svitan said that Russians could set off the explosives at the plant if they fear Ukrainian forces are prepared to attack.

“The plant is already completely mined, including containers with acid, chlorine and reagents,” Roman Svitan said, adding, “They recently began to rig explosives there, because they saw the Armed Forces of Ukraine [AFU] could cross the Dnieper [River] and attack Armiansk….Blowing Crimean Titan up will have military expediency for the Russians, since chemical emissions can slow down the movement of the AFU.”

Oleksandr Prokudin warned that the explosives going off at Crimea Titan would “release thousands of tons of toxic substances into the atmosphere” and cause a incident “worse than Chernobyl.”

“Residents of the Republic of Crimea and at least seven other Ukrainian regions will be affected, as well as Turkey [across the Black Sea] and the aggressor country itself,” he said.