Ukraine Live Day 461: Large Explosion in Donetsk Said Be Planned Disposal of Unexploded Ordnance

May 24, 2015
Explosion in Donetsk May 24, 2015. Photo via Segodnya.ua

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Large Explosion in Donetsk Tonight Reported to Be Planned Disposal of Unexploded Ordnance

There was a large explosion this evening in Donetsk which shook buildings.
Translation: Very strong explosion in Donetsk; houses shook, windows opened in apartments.
Translation: A powerful explosion thundered in Donetsk.
Translation: Donetsk was shaken by a powerful explosion. Today, May 24, about 18:30, resident of Donetsk heard a powerful explosion in the south of the city.

Translation: In Donetsk, an explosion thundered – people were pressed against the walls by the shock wave.

Segodnya.ua reported that the explosion was heard most of all in the micro-district of Tekstilshchik, and the shock wave reach the Izumrud [Emerald] store in the center of Minsk. As a resident told Segodnya.ua (translation by The Interpreter):

I was home when I heard a very strong explosion. For some reason, I didn’t run out to the hallway, but ran to the window. I saw that frightened children were racing home, and a pillar of smoke was rising up from the direction of the Leader sports center,” Tatyana Steblova, a resident of a building on Vysotskogo Street told Segodnya.ua. “I suppose that this is the latest de-mining of mortars somewhere in the micro-district of shiroky or the Kirsha Pond. But all my flower pots flew off the windowsill from the explosion.

Windows and doors opened from the explosion in people’s homes and metal was bent.

“People were smoking at the old ATB [supermarket], so the shock wave nearly crushed them against the wall,” Donetsk resident Kirill Pogutovsky shared.

Donetsk residents in Leninsky District said they noticed several ambulances driving at top speed near the circus.

Translation: According to clarified information, the explosion resounding in Donetsk about 19:00 was a planned disposal of unexploded ordnance.

It is not clear what the source of this last tweet is from, and we have not confirmed it.

Catherine A. Fitzpatrick