A toxic chemical is released during a Russian attack in the Luhansk region. Residents are warned.
Kyiv – The Luhansk region of Ukraine has been rocked by a Russian attack. According to information from the Daily Beast news portal, Russian troops are said to have fired on a nitric acid tank in the region, releasing a toxic cloud of nitric acid. The incident sparked panic, and civilians were told to protect their faces and stay indoors immediately.
Serhiy Gaidai, head of the Luhansk regional administration, warned residents in a video address that the toxic fumes could cause “serious damage”. “Prepare protective masks soaked in caustic soda. When applied locally to the eyes, nitric acid causes severe damage with extensive necrosis of the cornea and conjunctiva, which can lead to loss of vision,” he said. Gaidai added that saltpetre is very toxic and it is not known in which direction the released cloud is moving.
Ukraine News: Russian army shells nitric acid tank
The attack on the saltpetre tank is another Russian-led attack on civilians in the Ukraine conflict. Most recently, several apparently executed civilians were discovered in the city of Bucha near Kyiv. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) sees increasing evidence that people were “targeted” killed in Bucha.
“Everything indicates that the victims were deliberately targeted and killed outright. And this evidence is very disturbing,” said OHCHR spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell on Tuesday (05.04.2022) in Geneva. However, international humanitarian law prohibits intentional attacks on civilians in armed conflicts, which would be tantamount to a war crime.
Ukraine News: Civilians “targeted” killed in Bucha
It is difficult to imagine a military connection “when a person is lying on the street with a bullet in the head” or bodies with burned bodies are found, Throssel said, looking at photos of dead civilians with their hands tied and partially naked women whose bodies had been burned. She pointed out that the High Commission itself currently has no employees on site in Butscha. (marv)
