An explosion was reported at an ammunition depot in Ukraine's Chernigov Region, the General Staff of the Ukrainain Armed Forces said on its official Facebook page.
"At 3:30am [local time], we received a report from the head of the 6th arsenal that an explosion occurred on technical territory near the settlement of Ichnya in the Chernigov Region," the General Staff said.
It was reported that people are being evacuated, an operational group was dispatched to the site of the explosion. "Appropriate restrictive measure are being introduced in the Chernigov Region and along it borders," TASS cited the report as saying.
About 10,000 people have been evacuated from the danger zone in the area close to the burning ammunition depot in Ukraine’s northern Chernigov Region, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported.
"At 03:40 on October 9, the State Emergency Service received a report on a fire and explosions on the territory of the Defense Ministry’s 6th arsenal near the settlement of Druzhba in the Chernigov Region’s Ichnya District," the Emergency Service said, adding that around 10,000 have been evacuated from the area.
They added that "the airspace within a radius of 20 km has been closed since 04:22, while rail and road traffic has been suspended."
According to Ukraine’s Deputy Interior Minister Sergei Yarovoi, there are no immediate reports of casualties. "The emergency response center has been deployed [to the area]. There is no information about any victims," he said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website.
The Ukrainian law enforcement agencies are looking into several possible causes of the fire, as the Ukrainian Security Service is not ruling out sabotage, the SBU press service said in a press release.
"Law enforcement officers are looking into several versions, in particular, the Security Service of Ukraine is considering sabotage among possible causes," the press release read.
The Ukrainian military prosecution has launched a criminal investigation into the explosion at a military warehouse, the press service of the Military Prosecutor's Office of the Central Region said in a statement.
"The Military Prosecutor's Office of the Central Region of Ukraine has launched criminal proceedings into the exposition, under the third section of Article 425 [of the Ukrainian Criminal code, neglect of duty in military service causing grave consequences and committed in a special period, except for the martial law state]," Sputnik cited the statement as saying.
A group of military prosecutors is currently working at the site. The Ukrainian Security Service's prosecution department has been tasked with carrying out the pre-trial proceedings, while the military prosecution of the Chernihiv military district will be in charge of the procedural management.
