Russian MoD: Toxic Cloud Moving Towards Kramatorsk After Ukraine's Special Forces Provocation

In the past, indiscriminate shelling by Ukrainian Armed Forces already led to the destruction of tankers full of chemicals and the leak of poisonous substances that endangered lives in the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR).

A poisonous cloud is currently moving towards the city of Kramatorsk after Ukrainian special forces detonated an explosive boosted by a tonne of ammonium nitrate in an act of provocation, the Russian Defence Ministry has stated. Kramatorsk is located in the part of the Donetsk region currently under the control of Ukrainian forces.

"The Kiev regime continues to organise false-flag attacks to accuse the Russian Armed Forces of allegedly using poisonous substances", the ministry stated.

According to the Russian Defence Ministry, the detonation took place around 13:35 local time near the village of Mazanovka, not far from Kramatorsk and also in the territory controlled by Kiev's forces. The resulting toxic cloud was as high as 1 kilometre, the ministry added.

The defence ministry also released aerial footage of the orange cloud coming from the site of the explosion.

The ministry recalled that it was not the first time that Ukraine had exploded a large amount of ammonium nitrate to accuse Russia of staging a chemical attack. On 11 May, Moscow reported a false-flag operation from the Kiev forces when a tanker with fertiliser was blown up at Dolgenkoe village in the Kharkov region.

Russian Armed Forces are taking part in a special military operation in Ukraine which was launched on 24 February by President Vladimir Putin. Moscow's defence ministry has repeatedly stressed that it does not target civilian infrastructure, and only hits targets related to the main goals of the operation, which are the demilitarisation and de-Nazification of Ukraine.