The authorities of the “LNR” reported several explosions on the gas pipeline in Luhansk | News from Germany about Ukraine | DW

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A powerful explosion thundered on the night of Saturday, February 19, in Luhansk. According to the agency Luhanskinformtsentr, the gas pipeline exploded. A video posted on his Telegram channel shows a bright yellow glow illuminating the city at night.

According to information received by the agency from eyewitnesses, the fire is located in the area of ​​the Gorizont plant. According to some reports, an accident occurred at a gas distribution unit near 2nd Belomorskaya Street. Emergency crews were dispatched to the scene.

“At 00:10 (coincides with Moscow time) on February 19, calls began to come in about a major fire on the gas pipeline near Malaya Vergunka, emergency teams of Luganskgaz went to the scene of the incident,” a message posted on the enterprise’s Telegram channel said.

The first explosion was followed by the second

Later, there were reports of another explosion. “There’s another explosion in Lugansk!” – wrote the representative of the “Luhansk People’s Republic” (“LPR”) in the political subgroup of the contact group to resolve the situation in Donbass Rodion Miroshnik in his Telegram channel. According to him, the second explosion occurred in the Kamennobrodsky district of the city.

As the press service of the state unitary enterprise “Luganskgas” later reported, the second explosion occurred at about 00.40 local time. Shortly thereafter, emergency crews arrived at the scene of the incident. According to preliminary information, the gas station became the scene of the incident.

“The Ministry of Emergency Situations of the LPR managed to extinguish the fire as soon as possible. Law enforcement specialists are working on the spot. The causes of the explosion are being investigated,” the press service of Luganskgaz said in a statement.

Tatyana Bogorodko, general director of the company, called both explosions sabotage. According to her, such a conclusion was made after “assessment of the nature of the damage” of the gas pipeline. According to Luganskgaz, 95 subscribers have been temporarily disconnected from the gas supply system.

A third explosion is also reported

The gas pipeline in Luhansk was blown up on Saturday night in at least three places. Such information was provided to TASS by a source in the power structures of the “Lugansk People’s Republic”.

“There were at least three explosions. On Frunze Street in the Malaya Vergunka area, the gas pipeline was blown up in two places. About half an hour later, an explosion occurred on Veselogorovskaya Street in the Kamennobrodsky district,” the agency quotes its interlocutor.

Infrastructure not affected

The explosions that occurred on the gas pipeline in the “LPR” did not affect the operation of the infrastructure, said the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the “LPR” Yevgeny Katsavalov at a meeting in Rostov-on-Don.

“Within an hour, there were two explosions on the gas pipeline. The fires were eliminated. They did not affect the infrastructure,” he told reporters.

Naftogaz claims no involvement in the explosions

The Naftogaz company denies allegations of Ukraine’s involvement in the explosion of a gas pipeline near Luhansk. According to its director Yuriy Vitrenko, Ukraine has nothing to do with the explosion of the gas pipeline in the Luhansk region, since it has not belonged to it since 2014, it is disconnected from the united gas transportation system of Ukraine and is not used for transit and gas supplies to the country, which was proven in the Stockholm Arbitration. He wrote about this on his Facebook account.

Against the background of the buildup of Russian troops near the borders of Ukraine

In recent days, the situation in the Donbass has escalated against the background of the buildup of Russian troops near the borders of Ukraine. OSCE observers on the evening of February 16 – on the morning of February 17 recorded about 500 explosions near the line of contact in eastern Ukraine. This is several times more than the values ​​of the previous days. On February 18, it was reported that the car of Denis Sinenkov, the head of the “DPR People’s Militia”, was blown up in the center of Donetsk. He himself was not hurt. Kiev and the separatists blame each other for escalating tensions.

A massive Russian troop build-up, numbering some 150,000 according to Western sources, has been fueling fears for weeks about a Russian invasion of Ukraine under some pretext. Moscow denies such claims and, for its part, says it feels threatened by NATO.

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