A terrible explosion at the Rostov training ground: no casualties, but the question of the safety of military facilities remains open.

The morning of April 28 turned out to be unkind for residents of several settlements in the Neklinovsky and Myasnikovsky districts of the Rostov region. They had to evacuate from their homes to temporary accommodation centers. The reason for the evacuation carried out by rescuers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations was a strong explosion that, according to official data, occurred at about 7.45 am in the area of ​​​​the village of Kuzminki in the Myasnikovsky district. We reported about this yesterday. On the other hand, information spread on social networks that explosions at the test site began at 7.10 - 7.15 am.

Was the self-propelled gun “blown up” by faulty wiring?

The explosion occurred at one of the military training grounds of the Southern Military District. A self-propelled artillery unit (SPG) caught fire and exploded. According to the press service of the Southern Military District, the cause of the emergency was a faulty electrical wiring in the self-propelled guns. After the wiring caught fire, the crew quickly left the combat vehicle. The military was lucky - soon the self-propelled gun's ammunition detonated and an explosion occurred. The government of the Rostov region reported that after the first explosion, several more uncontrolled explosions occurred at the test site. A fire started. To extinguish the fire, not only the unit’s personnel were used, but also the district’s engineering equipment and two army aviation helicopters. The forces and means of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for the Rostov Region - 26 units of equipment and 106 personnel - came to the aid of the units of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

The head of the district press service, Colonel Igor Gorbul, reported about ten damaged cars. However, according to the officer, they were already intended for early decommissioning, since they had served their service life. Although initially it was about 30 cars. But official sources do not confirm this.

As for human casualties, the number of dead is still unknown. According to official data, ten people injured during the fire extinguishing operation sought medical help. They received burns of varying severity and concussion.

The names of some of the victims are known. These are contract servicemen: 27-year-old Vitaly Mandrykin and Elshen Usmanov, 26-year-old Grigory Khvandzhiyan. All of them were hospitalized at the district military hospital. Vitaly Mandrykin has a closed craniocerebral injury, contusion and spinal injury. Elshen Usmanov also received a closed craniocerebral injury and chest contusion, and Grigory Khvandzhiyan received a closed craniocerebral injury, chest contusion and contusion. The names of the remaining victims and their exact number have not yet been announced.

Farmers were evacuated in emergency mode

A state of emergency was introduced in the Neklinovsky district. To prevent possible loss of life, it was decided to urgently evacuate the population of nearby settlements. About 800 people were taken from the villages of Priyut, Golovinka and Chkalov to temporary accommodation centers. The Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the Rostov region alone allocated 15 buses, on which citizens were transported to four temporary accommodation points.

Car traffic has been restricted on the Rostov-Taganrog highway. Utilities also cut off the gas supply to ten settlements and cut off power to the 35/10 Sovetka substation. This substation supplies electricity to the affected landfill and 15 nearby settlements. Since the settlements were evacuated, employees of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Rostov Region arrived on their territory to protect the homes and personal property of citizens from possible acts of looting.

According to Vice-Governor Vadim Artemov, there are no wounded or shell-shocked among the civilian population. The buildings of the evacuated farms were not damaged either - both residential and commercial buildings remained safe and sound. However, according to our information, some residential buildings in the villages of Vodino and Golovinka were nevertheless damaged. In Vodino, a shell flew into the territory of a private household. In Golovinka, glass flew out of the windows of a residential building.

By the afternoon, the state of emergency declared in the Neklinovsky district in the morning was lifted. However, in order to avoid unforeseen circumstances, the authorities asked citizens not to let their children go outside. It is also recommended to be careful about metal objects that may be unexploded ordnance. Therefore, residents of villages close to the test site should closely monitor their children, preferably accompanying them when moving around populated areas.

The explosion scared people

The explosion at the test site, naturally, became news number one in the regional media. Residents of Rostov living in the Northern Residential Area claim that they felt the “echo” of the explosion: “I was still in bed, it shook in the horizontal plane twice exactly at this time between 7.10-7.15, I was very scared, I thought there was an earthquake somewhere,” writes a visitor to one from regional information resources. Of course, in the settlements of the Myasnikovsky and Neklinovsky districts the “swing” was much stronger. Many residents of the region were concerned about the possible consequences of such emergency situations and recalled the repeated cases of man-made accidents at military facilities that occurred in the 1990s - 2000s in various regions of Russia.

The current explosion is not the first emergency

Since the training ground in Kuzminki began to be more actively used by army units of the district, emergency incidents began to occur much more often. In July 2014, a mortar shell exploded during firing practice. As a result of the emergency, a thirty-year-old contract serviceman was killed, and seven more servicemen were injured of varying degrees of severity. In August, as Gazeta.ru reports, nine people died at the training ground - all of them were servicemen of one of the motorized rifle brigades of the Russian army, one of the dead was an officer with the rank of lieutenant. And now - a new emergency, about the actual causes and possible culprits of which it is too early to talk.

The relatively “mild” consequences of the explosion at the Kuzminki training ground, involving hundreds of people, equipment, and even helicopters extinguished the fires, should not become an excuse for those responsible for the safety of military facilities, safety precautions and the operation of weapons. After all, any such incident creates a mortal threat for a large number of both military personnel and civilians, and is fraught with significant material damage to the state and private property. While the reasons for what happened at the test site are being clarified by the competent authorities, Svobodnaya Pressa, in turn, will inform readers about further details of the investigation into the emergency. There are still more questions than answers. Was there a fire at an ammunition depot, information about which immediately appeared on many sources, and why are people in uniform silent about it? Why was electricity immediately cut off in many populated areas? What was this all about, and most importantly, will it happen again in the near future?

Photo at the opening of the article: while extinguishing a fire at the Kuzminsky military training ground, which arose as a result of the explosion of the ammunition of a self-propelled artillery mount / Photo: Valery Matytsin / TASS

On Tuesday, April 28, in the early morning, a series of powerful explosions occurred at the Kuzminsky training ground, which is located in the Rostov region.

According to official data, a self-propelled artillery unit, which was loaded with live shells, exploded at the training ground. A fire broke out and spread to warehouses where weapons and ammunition were stored, resulting in a series of explosions. At least thirty vehicles were destroyed, and warehouses burned until evening.

Residents of the villages of Chkalov, Priyut and Golovinka were evacuated and temporarily placed in schools in a neighboring village, even just in case they set up a camp in which they could take shelter and receive first aid.

Again, according to official data, as a result of the incident that occurred at the training ground, there were no deaths, there were only six injured military personnel, all of them were taken to the nearest hospital in the Neklinovsky district. After receiving first aid, they were sent to Rostov. According to the head physician of the district hospital, Dmitry Kuznetsov, the injuries of all six soldiers are not serious. They all basically suffered burns.

However, ordinary citizens and eyewitnesses of the emergency have different information about what is happening in the Rostov region. They note that the explosions there were actually powerful. The shock wave was felt even in the regional center. In villages located near the test site, windows were broken in houses. The shells started to fly in. Residents leave their homes in panic and run away. They also have different information about the military, they say that there are definitely dead there. Allegedly, the soldiers told them in panic that they had the impression that a war had begun. They allegedly began to be evacuated en masse after explosions began at ammunition depots. A state of emergency was even declared in the region. But towards evening it was lifted, and all civilians were allowed to return home. They say the threat has passed.

It is known that the Kuzminsky training ground has a bad reputation among the military. It has been empty for a long time. But in March last year, four thousand paratroopers landed there and exercises began, which took place more or less regularly throughout the year.

Three months later, after the first exercises began at the training ground, the first tragedy occurred - during the exercises, a mortar mine exploded, killing a 30-year-old volunteer. A month later, two more deaths occurred - on August 9 and 11, nine scouts died. However, under what circumstances is not specified. The relatives were told that they had died in the line of duty, and they were paid compensation of 5 million rubles. However, no criminal proceedings were opened in any of the cases, which, according to experts, is very strange. There are too many casualties, they note, no one follows safety precautions, and it seems that the top leadership of the Ministry of Defense is not alarmed by this fact.

As Gazeta.Ru was told at the headquarters of the Southern Military District, a 152-mm MSTA 2S19 self-propelled howitzer exploded.

Fortunately, this time there were no casualties. According to the head physician of the Neklinovsky District Central Hospital, Dmitry Kuznetsov, six servicemen were injured, mostly burns.

“But there are no seriously ill people among the wounded,” says Kuznetsov.

Residents of nearby villages were urgently evacuated from the landfill area. 120 people were taken out of the Golovinka farm, where glass shattered in several houses. 360 residents left the village of Chkalovsky. All of them were placed in local schools. One of the shells flew into the village of Vodino - it hit a private house, now explosives experts are working on the site.

“Kuzminka” is a military training ground; civilians were never allowed there. What they do there and what problems they solve, we don’t know and don’t ask. I can only report that none of the local residents were injured,” Alexander Khovyakov, 1st Deputy Head of the Neklinovsky District of the Rostov Region, told Gazeta.Ru. “Just in case, we set up four reception centers for citizens, you never know, there might be some kind of threat or something else, but, fortunately, they weren’t needed.”

According to Khovyakov, all residents have already been released to go home, and the state of emergency in the area has been lifted.

For a long time, no large-scale exercises were held at the training ground. But in March 2014, about 4 thousand paratroopers and 36 military transport and army aircraft landed here. The exercises included testing the use of tactical and parachute landings in various latitudes and conditions.

Three months later, in July, tragedy struck at Kuzminka. During the firing practice, a mortar shell exploded. Then a 30-year-old contract soldier was mortally wounded, and seven other servicemen received injuries of varying severity.

And a month later, a new emergency happened with victims. According to HRC members Ella Polyakova and Sergei Krivenko,

On August 9 and 11, two incidents occurred at the same training ground, where there were already nine dead soldiers (scouts). All of them served under contract in the 18th Motorized Rifle Brigade.

Six of them were privates, two were senior and junior sergeants and a lieutenant, group commander.

“The check was carried out, the fact of the death of the servicemen was confirmed, but neither the circumstances nor the reasons for their death were revealed to us,” says Sergei Krivenko to Gazeta.Ru. “In the end, no criminal cases were even initiated, which is strange, of course.”

According to Krivenko, all those who died at the test site were given the status of “died in the line of duty,” and according to the law, their relatives were paid up to 5 million rubles. — 2 million insurance and 3 million from the Ministry of Defense.

“It is possible that they died not at the training ground, but in another place, and the relatives of the victims (though not all) are trying to ensure that a criminal case is opened and that the investigation is carried out as expected.

After all, this is very strange: there are explosions and casualties, but there is no investigation,” Krivenko is amazed..

“The fact that emergency situations involving human casualties occur so often in Kuzminka raises at least a question.”

“There are too many casualties at the training grounds, and the main reason is violation of safety regulations and non-compliance with the orders of the Ministry of Defense on working with ammunition,” says military pensioner Sergei Rykalin. “This has been brought to the attention of the military department many times, but people continue to die.

And they will die, because there is no action taken by the Ministry of Defense to change the situation..

The entire investigation boils down to finding the last officer (usually a junior officer), who is then brought to criminal responsibility. In practice, most emergency situations at military training grounds occur due to the inaction of the leadership.”

Thus, the commander of the combined ammunition destruction company, Roman Ryazantsev, was responsible for the death of eight servicemen in August 2012 at the Astrakhan training ground Ashuluk, who was sentenced to three and a half years in a penal settlement. In August 2013, there was another explosion and two people died. A few months later, Lieutenant Vyacheslav Panikarovsky was convicted and given three years in a penal colony.

“The situation with Ryazantsev and Panikarovsky was like a carbon copy: the officers carried out the assigned task with the forces that were available, and when trouble happened, they were made extreme. And the older bosses, as always, have nothing to do with it. At the trial, all conscripts confirmed that there was no instruction at the training ground and the officers were only carrying out the orders of their superiors,” explains Alexander Filimonov from the Center for Military-Civil Interaction to Gazeta.Ru.

The Ministry of Defense has not yet commented on what happened at the training ground in the Rostov region.

Explosions at the Kuzminsky military training ground near Rostov began to occur too often. On April 28, at 7.15 am, a powerful explosion occurred, which was heard by many residents of Rostov. According to official data "... at the Kuzminsky training ground not far from ChaltyrWhen the equipment of one of the units of the Southern Military District was leaving a field camp for scheduled combat training exercises, as a result of an electrical short circuit, a fire occurred inside a self-propelled artillery installation. As a result of the ignition, the self-propelled gun's ammunition detonated." Nuclear submarines in Russia also catch fire from a spark. This fact is already known to everyone.
According to official data, 6 people died, the wounded were sent to Rostov after first aid was provided. According to unofficial data, cargo sorting point 200 will be deployed in Neklinovka, since after such a powerful explosion it is very difficult to put together the “puzzles” of military brigade employees. (reference: In modern conditions, the number of military brigades ranges from 2 to 8 thousand people. I would like to hope that that random video is inaccurate

However, the scale of what happened is clearly hidden from the population, and there is no need to talk about the Russian media at all. They have long forgotten how to speak the truth.
Today, April 29, residents of Rostov, Megafon subscribers, began to receive strange SMS on their mobile phones, which say that they do not have the right to approach the landfill at a distance of up to 5 km. The Rostov-Taganrog highway was blocked.

4 farms were evacuated, with a total of 800 people. Because the noise is around the city

got up serious, the military deigned to report that the self-propelled gun exploded - there was a short circuit in it and the ammunition exploded.
At least 15 fire crews rushed to extinguish this self-propelled gun; they flew there from all over the city. No one was allowed near the training ground, but judging by the sounds, eyewitnesses say, there was more than one self-propelled gun there. This notable training ground is Kuzminsky. It is known for the fact that it is there that the so-called volunteers who go to Donbass from all over Russia have been training for the last six months. Tank divisions are also located there and are being prepared for transfer to Ukraine. Recently, the landfill has grown like a large city, and for the last year this city has been living a very active life.

As Rostov journalists note, this large-scale event did not find any coverage in local television news. The presenters got off with short messages like don’t worry - everything is fine.

Meanwhile, residents of the Neklinovsky district report that the surrounding area is full of military personnel. Doctors from all surrounding hospitals are involved in providing assistance to the victims and transporting coffins. Their number is not yet known. However, losses have always been the most difficult number to calculate in the army.

Journalists are surprised: while shells were flying into the Rostov region from Ukraine (controlled by militants!) all summer, no one sent any SMS warnings. And then suddenly - they... took care of you.

A 102S-19 self-propelled howitzer exploded. 120 people were taken out of the Golovinka farm; the glass of houses there was broken by shrapnel. 360 residents were evacuated from the village of Chkalovsky, all of them were placed in local schools in Neklinovka. One of the shells flew into the village of Vadina, it hit a private house, no casualties were reported, but bomb technicians worked there for a long time. Four citizen reception points were deployed.
“You never know what kind of threat or something else,” said Khovyakov, a local official.

There have been no large-scale exercises held in Kuzminka for a long time. But in March 2014, about four thousand paratroopers and 36 military transport and army aircraft landed there. The exercises included testing the use of landing forces in various latitudes and conditions. Officers and junior staff confirm that there are no clear instructions, that the guys only follow commands, live in harsh field conditions.
Three months later, in June, a tragedy occurred on Kuzminka: a mortar shell exploded during firing practice. Then a 30-year-old contract soldier was mortally wounded. And seven more conscripts were injured of varying severity. And a month later, in July, there was a new emergency; it was not possible to find out the number of victims.
On August 7-9, at the same training ground in Kuzminka, another bloody incident occurred: 9 reconnaissance soldiers serving under contract in the 18th Motorized Rifle Brigade were killed. 6 of them were privates - conscripts. Two: senior and junior sergeants, and a lieutenant - group commander. After an inspection, it was confirmed that these guys died, but no circumstances or reasons for their death were named.
At the same time, each of them was given the status: “died in the line of duty.” These are, perhaps, the only cases recorded by human rights activists in which the relatives of the victims received compensation promised by the state - up to 5 million rubles. However, no one succeeded in initiating a criminal case into the death of the soldiers.
In winter, there was thunder again in Kuzminka. Then up to 50 people died. The media is generally silent about this tragedy. And now this.

All investigations in the Russian Ministry of Defense, as a rule, boil down to finding the last, junior in rank. In practice, all emergency incidents occur, most often, from the mediocrity and inaction of the management team.
Let us at least remember the tragedy with the Kursk APRK, when Popov, drunkenly, ordered an attack on a discovered object, and Peter the Great fired at the submarine point-blank with two torpedoes. Or the tragedy in Severomorsk in 1984, when the world was endangered due to top management drinking in the wrong place.

It is also known that the write-off of cargo-200 is partially carried out through this landfill. And as a person who has been following such events for a long time, the question inevitably arises: maybe such explosions are carried out regularly in order to hide the losses of military personnel in the Donbass?
However, in the Russian military department, with its comprehensive meanness towards contract soldiers, anything is possible...