The specialist called the main danger from the destruction of the pipeline in the Kharkiv region: tons of ammonia

The Ministry of Defense reported on the affected population of the region

With a chemical attack on the inhabitants of the Kharkiv region, one could compare the alkaline ammonia fog that enveloped the neighborhood of the village of Masyutovka on Monday evening. There, 23 kilometers from Kupyansk, a sabotage and reconnaissance group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine blew up the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline, as a result of which one saboteur died and several people received, apparently, severe internal burns. “MK” learned how dangerous the release of several tons of ammonia for the population and the military.

“A Ukrainian sabotage group blew up the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline in the Kharkiv region, there are victims among the civilian population,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. The sabotage was committed on June 5 at 21:00 Moscow time near the village of Masyutovka.

The Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline, or rather the transit of ammonia through it from Russia, was one of the topics discussed over the past two weeks. Russia, which halted the transit on February 24, 2022, would like, but cannot yet, resume it due to hostilities in Ukraine.

The authorities of the Kharkiv region reported that immediately after the damage to the structure, on June 5, they detected an increased content of ammonia in the air. On Tuesday evening, according to their reports, the pipeline came under fire again – six hits were recorded in the area of ​​​​the pumping station near the village of Masyutovka. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the ammonia pipeline damaged the DRG of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

According to the director of the regional department of civil protection of Kharkiv, Ivan Sokol, the volume of ammonia leakage due to pipeline damage could be about 134 tons, and the toxic cloud could spread 2.5 kilometers.

“If we are talking about 134 tons, and this is not a little, it means that the ammonia pipeline was under pressure, with pumped liquefied gas, which, of course, still needs to be checked,” an ammonia production company specialist commented to us. – In general, the property of ammonia is such that when released into the atmosphere from a liquefied state, it immediately turns into a gas and spreads a white haze low above the ground. It turns out something like an alkaline fog.

According to the leading specialist of the Phobos Weather Center Yevgeny Tishkovets, who spoke about the consequences of the environmental disaster in the Full Contact program, the wind rose on June 5 and 6 was located in such a way that the cloud of poisonous gas shifted to Ukrainian positions.

According to toxicologists, ammonia is dangerous if inhaled. In acute poisoning, the gas affects the eyes and respiratory tract, and even death is possible.

“I wouldn’t envy a person who was poisoned by ammonia,” one of the specialists told us. – Remember how at school we were explained the action of the poisonous substance mustard gas? Something similar happens with a strong ammonia attack: a strong cough, suffocation, with a high concentration of vapors – excitement, delirium.

A similar poisoning due to an ammonia leak from a gas pipeline, which killed four people and injured 15, occurred in 2013 in the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. About 1,500 residents were evacuated from nearby settlements.