People’s Deputy, the Party of Regions parliamentary faction member Nestor Shufrich considers that ignition of the arms depots in the Kharkiv region has been entailed by that the true culprits of the past ignitions have not been held to respond, and the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the present government on the whole ignored the measures on ammunition utilization set up by the government of Viktor Yanukovych:

- Unfortunately, the scenario which the opposition had repeatedly warned against occurred. We raised the question that the ammunition dumps near Lozova may become another Novobogdanivka. During the Viktor Yanukovych government work the attention of the Ministry of Defense heads had been drawn to unsatisfactory storage of ammunition at the depots in the Kharkiv region more than once at the meetings of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and in the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Now it is too late to get in sackcloth and ashes. The consequences of this fire and explosions should be liquidated as soon as possible. But the most important thing is to analyze the reasons of the tragedy and avoid reiteration. I hope that after such huge fire the government will economize neither on the Ministry of Defense nor on the Ministry of Emergency Situations. I wish I believed that this case would make it think over the necessity of undertaking special purpose measures at the armament dumps in all regions. These measures should assure the security of our citizens. For example, the money spent on the parade should better be used not for show but for ensuring the actual security of the military storages. People should not live in constant fear for their life and their relatives’ life because military units are located nearby.

I am sure that the work of the court of inquiry into the reasons of the fire and explosions will be unbiased. In my opinion, there are only two reasons: the first one is negligence of the unit servicemen who let ignition on the premises and did not assure timely liquidation of the fire. In this case not only the guilty should be responsible, but also the Ministry of Defense officials who are directly in charge of this division.

The second possible reason is fire penetration from outside. And then along with the servicemen the responsibility is born by those who did not provide risk-free protection of dangerous storages. I would like to remind that last year in Kherson region near Tsyurupinsk the fire completely surrounded the unit, where rocket systems were based. The fire spread over several kilometers, but then the Ministry of Defense made a helpless gesture: they said they could not withdraw the rockets from the fire area due to a lack of tractors. And only owing to firemen’s well thought-out and coordinated actions the fire damaged neither the rockets nor the premises.

Unfortunately, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the government on the whole ignored the measures on ammunition utilization set up by the government of Viktor Yanukovych. I would like to believe that the officials who are liable for ensuring security of such units will not trigger a back-flash and will make every effort so that people would be certain of such units’ security.

The Party of Regions Press Service