08/04/2022 Ucraina (Україна)
“If you ever come across anything suspicious like this item, please do not pick it up, contact your local law enforcement agency for assistance”
This story was published in partnership with The Center for Public Integrity. This is the eighth in a 10-part series on nuclear risk, military technology and the future of warfare in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On March 22, a construction crew in Germany found an unexploded bomb in Essen, Germany, decades after it had been dropped during World War II. The area was evacuated, including part of a nearby hospital and a home for seniors. Late that night explosive ordnance disposal crews defused the bomb. The old weapon is a reminder, as war continues 1,000 miles east of Essen in Ukraine, that unexploded weapons are a multigenerational burden. When wars end, and even as they continue, the painstaking work of clearing lethal detritus must be done to prevent future deaths. “A huge number of shells and mines have been fired at Ukraine, and a large part haven’t exploded. They remain under the rubble and pose a real threat,” Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky told the Associated Press on March 19. “It will take years, not months, to defuse them.” Before Russia invaded in February, Ukraine had already spent decades of work clearing up unexploded bombs and ammunition. In 2001, Ukraine authorized a program of clearing out unexploded ordnance left over from World War II. This included clearing the Inkerman Adits, horizontal mine shafts in Crimea where the USSR had stored over 10,000 tons of ammunition. A 1942 explosion rendered the stockpile unusable, detonating many of the weapons stored within, but left an estimated 1,000 to 3,000 tons of ammunition undetonated. The Adits were a particularly complex clearing problem, and just one of many areas where leftover war explosives had to be cleared in Ukraine.
Небрежное обращение с оружием и взрывными устройствами, которые находятся в незаконном обороте, продолжает ежедневно уносить жизни наших граждан», – тогда написал в Facebook замглавы Национальной полиции Украины Вячеслав Аброськин
Dear editors, Biography of a bomb is aimed at highlighting the danger caused by unexploded bombs. Moreover, the most important aspect is that we work completely non profit, raising awerness about this topic is what drives us. We apologize if we make use of pictures in yours articles, but we need them to put a context in how findings are done. We will (and we always do) cite source and author of the picture. We thank you for your comprehension.
