Ukraine to appeal to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons regarding toxic emissions in Crimea
Ukraine will submit an appeal to the international Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) regarding chemical emissions and air pollution at the plant Crimean Titan plant" in the territory of the Crimea, said the press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Mariana Betsa on Channel 5.
According to Betsa, currently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs collects all the information from the competent authorities, including necessary materials and evidence of the chemical discharge in the Crimea.
"Of course, we condemn all these actions. We need a complete the set of documents and transfer them to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. We collect all the information, all the materials and all the evidence from all the involved competent bodies. We need an expert evaluation of our information and as soon as we will get it, I think it will be in the near future, we will immediately submit this to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, "said the representative of the Foreign Ministry.
She also added that Ukraine holds Russian Federation fully responsible for the situation with the Crimean Titan plant.
On the night of August 23 to August 24, the release of an unknown substance occurred in the plant in Armyansk. The Crimean authorities said that the cause of emissions is heat and prolonged absence of precipitation. However, according to preliminary research, the cause of contamination is the evaporation of the contents of the acid storage used by the Crimean plant Titan.
Armyansk schoolchildren were sent on a two weeks’ vacation. Preschool children with parents and schoolchildren "for preventive purposes" will be sent to rest in the Crimean sanatoriums. The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, invited Armyansk children in the Kherson region to improve their health.
On September 7, 41 border guards from the Kherson region complained of sickness. Five of them were hospitalized.
Ukraine opened a criminal investigation into a toxic outbreak in Armyansk. The case qualifies according to the "Pollution of atmospheric air" article of Ukrainian Criminal code.
On September 8, it became known that children and pregnant women were moved away from the villages in the Kherson region due the emissions from Titan.