MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. A radiation safety memo is being handed out in Ukraine’s Ternopol Region, the country’s former prime minister Nikolay Azarov said on Friday.
"This memo appeared in public places of cities in the Ternopol Region," the ex-prime minister said, including a picture of the memo on his Facebook page (prohibited in Russia due to its ownership by Meta, which has been designated as extremist), "However, at the official level no one has clarified anything yet." With this in mind, Azarov wonders what really exploded in the region's warehouses.
However, the Telegram channel of the Ternopol regional center for control and prevention of diseases of the Ukrainian Health Ministry says that as of 09:00 a.m. Moscow time on May 19, the radiation background in the territory of the region remains within normal limits.
The document also states that "the Ukrainian Health Ministry warns of the need to observe radiation safety." Essentially, this is an instruction about what the population should do "in connection with the threat of radiation danger in the city of Khmelnytsky and its suburbs."
Earlier, the Ukrainian media reported that on May 13, there was an explosion and fire at a depleted uranium ammunition depot in the Ternopol region. On the same day, regional head Vladimir Trush said that this was a fabrication. According to him, "no ammunition with enriched or depleted uranium exploded." The authorities also denied media reports that radiation levels in Ternopol and Khmelnytsky had increased to dangerous levels. Trush assured that the environmental situation in Ternopol was stable, and Khmelnytsky Mayor Alexander Simchishin slammed the information about the increased radiation levels as pure speculation.
On the night of May 14, air-raid alarms were declared in all regions of Ukraine. Later, there were reports of explosions, including in Ternopol. City authorities reported an explosion in an industrial zone. Later, footage of powerful explosions and fires in the city began to circulate on Ukrainian social networks.