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Over 6 tonnes of ammonia leak after Ukrainian troops shell brewery in Donetsk — top brass

According to Mikhail Mizintsev, a toxic cloud developed after the explosion, spreading to an area of two square kilometers

MOSCOW, August 12. /TASS/. Ukrainian troops shelled on Wednesday the territory of a brewery in Donetsk, having hazardous chemicals on its premises. Over six tonnes of ammonia leaked when a cooling system tank was damaged, Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the National Defense Management Center, reported on Thursday.

"On August 10, artillery units of the 110th separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian army shelled the territory of a brewery in Donetsk, having hazardous chemicals used in the production process on its premises," the general said, adding that the shelling came from the direction of Avdeyevka settlement.

"A 40-tonne cooling system tank was damaged in the shelling, from which more than six tonnes of ammonia leaked," said Mizintsev, who also heads the Russian Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine.

According to Mizintsev, a toxic cloud developed after the explosion, spreading to an area of two square kilometers. One employee of the brewery was killed and two received severe burns of the respiratory tract. Units of the DPR’s emergencies ministry acted promptly to deal with the aftermath of the artillery strike and to avert victims among the local civilians.

The colonel-general stressed that it was not the first targeted shelling of chemically hazardous facilities by Ukrainian troops, putting in danger the lives and health of thousands of civilians.

"We regard these criminal actions of the Ukrainian authorities as acts of chemical terrorism. This is yet another proof of genocide by the criminal Kiev regime of the civilian population of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, fighting for their independence from Ukrainian Nazism," said Mizintsev.