Ukraine SitRep: Explosion in Khmelnytsky - Bakhmut Evacuation - Longer Range Missiles

 

moon of alabama

In the early morning of last Saturday two large explosions (video) destroyed a large ammunition depot near the city of Khmelnytsky in west Ukraine.

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This picture shows the depot before the strike:

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The explosion destroyed the whole depot:

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The depot sat at a rail line some 5,000 meter west from the city center. It is likely that the explosion destroyed not only a large amount of ammunition but also a large number of windows in the city and caused some casualties.

The city of Khmelnytsky, which has a population of 270.000, is named after a famous Cossack hetman (elected military leader) who in 1648 rose up against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that controlled the west of Ukraine.

While military operations continued inconclusively, and because Tatar support proved undependable at crucial moments, Khmelnytsky began to search for other allies.

He found those allies in Moscow:

Khmelnytsky secured the military protection of the Tsardom of Russia in exchange for allegiance to the Tsar. An oath of allegiance to the Russian monarch from the leadership of the Cossack Hetmanate was taken, shortly thereafter followed by other officials, the clergy and the inhabitants of the Hetmanate swearing allegiance. The exact nature of the relationship stipulated by the agreement between the Hetmanate and Russia is a matter of scholarly controversy. The council of Pereiaslav was followed by an exchange of official documents: the March Articles (from the Cossack Hetmanate) and the Tsar's Declaration (from Muscovy).

The council was attended by a delegation from Moscow headed by Vasiliy Buturlin. The event was soon thereafter followed by the adoption in Moscow of the so-called March Articles that stipulated an autonomous status of the Hetmanate within the Russian state. The agreement precipitated the Russo-Polish War (1654–67). The definitive legal settlement was effected under the Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686 concluded by Russia and Poland that re-affirmed Russia's sovereignty over the lands of Zaporozhian Sich and left-bank Ukraine, as well as the city of Kiev.

The city is some 200 kilometer from the Polish boarder. The depot has likely held ammunition that was coming from the 'West' to go to the front line in east Ukraine. There are rumors that the depot held British ammunition for Challenger main battle tanks. The ammunition is filled with depleted Uranium. Some charts are circulating which claim to show a gamma ray spike in the area.

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However the relevant map does not load for me and I have no way to verify it. The chart seem to show an increase in Gamma radiation but that increase happened during May 11/12, not in the early morning of May 13 when the explosion happened. The increase is also very small and the total is normal and not dangerous. Flying in a commercial airplane will typically expose you to some 2,000 nano-Sievert per hour [nSi/h]. Small background radiation variances happen all the time so the chart does not really tell us anything.

In other news the Ukrainian army seems to abandon whatever is left of Bakhmut city.

In today's clobber report the Russian Defense Ministry reported the intercept by air defense of a British Storm Shadow cruise missile. This confirms that these are not some new wonder weapons. (The recent two Storm Shadow impacts in Luhansk city were against undefended targets and also accompanied by a U.S. delivered electronic warfare missile which probably can confuse air defense radar.)

Also taken down yesterday were seven U.S. HARM anti-radar missiles and ten HIMARS missiles.

The use of so many HARM missiles is unusual and points to a new campaign in preparation of the much hyped counteroffensive.

Posted by b on May 15, 2023 at 17:23 UTC | Permalink

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