What's really happening in Armyansk? What is the cause of the environmental disaster? Who is threatened by toxic emissions from Crimean chemical enterprises? And will Armyansk be suitable for human life? We are talking about this in the studio of Radio Crimea. Realities with the head of the Association of the Hospitality Industry of Ukraine, ex-Minister of Resorts and Tourism of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Alexander Liev.
Old residents of the city will not remember what happened now
- As a former resident of Armyansk, I know that in the “chemical” region (Armensk - Krasnoperekopsk - northern Crimea) several tens of thousands of people work at chemical plants. I myself was a director and one of the shareholders of Brom OJSC in Krasnoperekopsk, and we were accustomed to all sorts of emissions there. And Armyansk is located in such a way that, thanks to the wind rose, quite frequent emissions from the sulfuric acid workshop of the Titan plant reached the villages of Krasny Chaban (now the village of Preobrazhenka, Kherson region, - KR) or the village of Perekop, but usually did not reach the city itself. The old residents of the city will not remember what happened now. I know this acid accumulator well, and I remember that in the heat it was regularly irrigated, special curtains were created, I was surprised: does this really help? But work was carried out to dilute the acid content. Now I have called several dozen people and asked questions, and the plant’s technologists say that the disaster is connected specifically with the acid storage tank and that it has not been diluted with water for a long time, as was the case before.
The consequences are noticeable for people physiologically - on the mucous membranes and skin - within a radius of 25 kilometers. It is also clear from the plants that something unusual is happening. Visible on cars and metal objects. For example, the metal fence of my grandmother, who lives there, turned bright red overnight. We will have to study for a long time what other consequences there will be. And how else will the fauna react? There are many rare steppe animals and insects there. In general, this is a big problem.
– The first reports of releases of toxic substances appeared on the night of August 23-24. And the meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine took place only on September 6. Then a message came that the checkpoints would be closed. 37 employees of the Ukrainian border control service sought medical help. Isn’t there really special equipment in such areas that should respond to emissions? And why did it take the Ukrainian authorities two weeks to respond?
Our government appreciated that this topic attracted the attention of Ukrainians, and this forced us to convene a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council and, in general, show our reaction
– The Titan plant is located in Armyansk not because there are raw materials for it or sales of its products. The plant has previously encountered various conflicts due to the fact that it is located at the junction of two administrative regions of Ukraine – the Kherson region and Crimea. There were even discussions on changing administrative borders. And it is certainly not suitable for working in conditions where Crimea is a gray zone and the plant is on the collision line. It is obvious that there is a hushing up of the problem, and the old Soviet and Putin theme of showing that “everything is fine with us.” The reaction of the Ukrainian authorities also smacks of politics and the upcoming elections. And thank God that in Ukraine public opinion dictates to the authorities, and not, as in Russia, the authorities dictate to society. Our government appreciated that this topic attracted the attention of Ukrainians, and this forced us to convene a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council and, in general, show our reaction.
– Russia had more leverage on the situation, monitoring tools, but they said that everything was fine, that no one was to blame for exceeding the concentration of the substance, nevertheless, after two weeks they decided to take the children out. Can this be considered a repeat of what happened with Chernobyl in 1986?
Any foreign commission can ban the operation of factories because it is a powder keg
– It is difficult to comment on everything that the occupiers are doing there. This is most often the execution of the Kremlin’s directives, and the Kremlin doesn’t dig particularly deep. Our human rights group “February 20” helped Crimeans a lot, and we raised the issue with the Ukrainian government about the necessary actions. Both the Titan plant and the Crimean Soda Plant are heavily dependent on the Ukrainian energy system and on the resource base, including water, and the North Crimean Canal. They are part of the ecosystem of the Black Sea and Azov regions. These factories, as I said, are unable to operate in a gray zone. Firtash earns money by creating risks for people in the southern part of the Kherson region and the northern part of Crimea - this is about 500 thousand people. We need to talk about this and attract foreign experts. I think that any foreign commission can ban the operation of factories, because it is a powder keg.
– What should Kyiv do? Demand the closure of Titan or, as some suggest, hide our pride and let the water flow so that this plant can come to life?
The monitoring mission has every reason to visit there, because the situation concerns two seas of international importance - the Black and Azov
– We need a monitoring mission. She has every reason to visit there, if only because the situation concerns two seas of international importance - the Black and Azov. In addition, I am an adherent of the idea that we must maintain ties with Crimea and, through these ties, keep Crimea in the orbit of Ukraine. Those who do not believe in the return of Crimea are in favor of cutting off the ends, digging a ditch, building a wall - and “so that you all die there.” I consider such people to be more separatists than those who were in Crimea. I believe in the return of Crimea. If one day circumstances developed in such a way that it became possible to capture him, they can also develop in such a way that we can return him.
We must be ready to take advantage of such circumstances. Maintaining ties with Crimea involves supplying both water and electricity. I consider the blackout of Crimea to be absolutely ignorant. What are these strange methods in a modern country that strives for Europe? What prevented the president Poroshenko make the following statement: “Dear Crimeans. Today our electricity consumption in Crimea is 100 units. Of these, 40 units are consumed by the population, and 60 units are consumed by Firtash and Russian military complexes. From today we supply you with only 40% of electricity per day. And when your electricity is turned off, know that it is not we who turn it off, your fellow citizens who understand that you are occupied, but your own occupiers who turn you off”? It was possible to supply food. Ukrainian products are of higher quality, cheaper, tastier and more familiar to Crimeans. We could repackage it, label it, even deliver it in yellow-blue packaging. Then Crimeans would have a referendum every day, when they must decide whether to buy high-quality Ukrainian yogurt or disgusting Russian yogurt that costs twice as much.
Evacuation of children from Armyansk. September 4, 2018– The Russian information field is controlled by the Kremlin, and not everyone in Russia knows about the scale of the environmental disaster in Armyansk. But sooner or later this information will leak out. Will the influx of Russians on the peninsula become less?
– Crimea received 1 million 200 tourists from Russia in peacetime. In my opinion, these were people who really loved Crimea. For me, the image of such a tourist, whom we have always been waiting for in Crimea, is Yuri Shevchuk, lead singer of the group "DDT". He said that going to Crimea is not tourism, but a pilgrimage. After the occupation, such Russians stopped going there. The flow was replenished by people who came not of their own free will, but on vouchers that were given to them for free, and there are about 700 thousand such people every year.
Environmental problems in Crimea will not stop such a tourist. But the increase in tourist flow that I spoke about Aksenov, it’s hardly worth predicting – both because of the environmental disaster and because military equipment is constantly moving in Crimea. Adequate, normal Russians now do not see Crimea as a safe recreation area. They don’t see it as effective for investment. Therefore, there are no systemic investments. There are several companies that took away something for free, painted it and whitewashed it - but this is not an investment. Even interesting, tasty projects are not financed. That is, Russian money does not go to Crimea.
It was the chemical plant that was accused of releasing chemicals that caused widespread illness among people on the peninsula and the mainland.
Ten days ago, residents of the occupied Crimean Armyansk woke up in another city. There was darkness all around, it was impossible to breathe, the leaves turned yellow. It was obvious that something had happened, but no one understood what exactly, the TSN.Tizhden story says.
“I went to work in the morning and almost suffocated. Secondly, I heard acid in the apartment even at night. I got up and put on a mask,” says one of the local residents.
Photo gallery Residents of Crimea and Kherson region suffer for another day at the Crimean Titan plant (4 photos)
For the last 40 years, everything has been fine in Armyansk, which lives next to the Crimean Titan plant, but 2 weeks ago the city, which found itself in the occupied part of Ukraine, was covered with a chemical cloud, the clouds of which were carried along with the wind to the south of the Crimean Peninsula.
“It blows acid and in the morning the haze is terrible. It’s like you can’t breathe. There’s just a bitterness. You can feel the acid on your lips. You can’t take anything. Your throat starts to feel sore and your stomach,” notes Tatyana Ivanova, a resident of the village of Preobrazhenka in the Kherson region.
Therefore, it is not difficult to understand how people nearby feel. The so-called leader of Crimea annexed by Russia, Sergei Aksenov, came to extinguish the panic in Armyansk. Of course, he urged the locals not to believe their eyes and feelings. According to him, there is no threat to health. Now, according to the Crimean authorities, everything is also fine. But Crimeans do not respond very loyally to the bravura posts of the authorities on Facebook.
“I declare clearly: nothing threatens the lives and health of citizens,” Aksenov wrote on his page, but local residents do not believe him.
“All the metals that are in apartments and on the street were oxidized: blenders, microwaves, clothes dryers... There is no threat to life and health? The metals have oxidized! What happens to people then?” writes one of the Facebook users. “Tell my father, whose greenery fell off overnight and the roof rusted. And who has been vomiting for three days,” another replies.
The cause of the chemical emissions could be the so-called acid lake or. This company, by the way, belongs to Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash and operates quietly in occupied Crimea. So, this plant produces titanium dioxide, which is used in many sectors of the economy. For example, in baby powders. This plant has a settling tank in which sulfuric acid waste, in particular spent sulfuric acid, accumulates. This sump must be filled with water. If the concentration of water suddenly begins to decrease, then sulfuric anhydride flies into the air.
“Today I can breathe a little better, but I still have a sore throat and itchy eyes. That’s exactly what it is. For example, my blood pressure is constantly fluctuating. I have a headache,” says local resident Antonina Roshchina.
Natalya Kostinskaya, an expert in pharmacology and toxicology, Doctor of Medical Sciences, spoke about the dangers of sulfuric anhydride to the human body.
“The fact that the clouds are in the form of rust, which is why the leaves are like this, is, of course, due to sulfuric anhydride, because when it interacts with water it forms sulfuric acid. And this sulfuric acid - it just pours on people. That’s why these the masks they wear don’t help. Even if they are wet, it immediately combines with gas, because sulfur dioxide is a gas, and that same sulfuric acid is formed. You can’t breathe sulfuric acid, because it’s poison,” she said. .
According to her, this acid can cause baldness and blurred vision in the future.
“This sulfuric acid subsequently causes baldness, blurred vision, a slow toxic effect, and already on the 11th day the toxic effect of dioxides and salts is greater than at the time of the attack. Therefore, it is no coincidence that they made a fuss not on the 25th, 24th (August - ed.) when this happened , and later, people began to feel worse after 10 days. They began to concentrate these poisons in their bodies,” the expert emphasized.
Poison affects all living and nonliving things in the same way. People in the Armyansk region lost their entire harvest. They talk about dead cattle and birds. Overnight, all metal instantly rusts. Therefore, despite the beautiful words, children were evacuated from the three regions of Crimea closest to the plant.
But on September 5, the wind changed and brought everything to the Kherson region. The first ones who began to sound the alarm. And then residents of the surrounding villages began to complain about poor health. There was no need for laboratories - everything in the gardens and courtyards immediately turned yellow. The heaviest is chemical wind. Therefore, they began to transport them inland from the affected villages in an organized manner. Parents remain at home.
“Two children have signs that may be caused by chemical contamination. I’ll say right away that there is no threat to life,” said Viktor Korolenko, director of the Department of Health of the Kherson Regional State Administration.
This sump of the Crimean plant, as the authorities of the annexed Crimea assures, has dried up due to Ukraine cutting off the water in the North Crimean Canal. But Ukraine cut off the water several years ago. Why didn't anyone stop the plant if it couldn't work? And if he could, then where did the water go? Ukrainian officials claim that the final blow to the plant was when a shell hit the settling tanks during . Then the water disappeared completely. Although this is only a version.
It is known from various sources and from the residents themselves on social networks that there was a release of harmful substances from the Crimean Titan chemical plant. The grass has withered, the drinking water is polluted, the leaves have fallen from the trees, animals and birds are dying, children have been evacuated...
The information from local authorities is basic: “there is no danger”, “everything is under control”, “air pollution is at an acceptable level”, “there are no health hazards”... The Crimean authorities are doing everything possible to reassure the public.
The Crimean Titan plant in Armyansk is located in the north of Crimea. The chemical enterprise is the largest producer of titanium dioxide white pigment in Eastern Europe.
Accident at a chemical plant in Crimea and its cause
Meanwhile, just today, September 17, the central media published a message on the Internet that the whole point is the destruction of the dam on the part of Ukraine.
The director of the Crimean Titan chemical plant, A. Akulov, officially admitted that part of the dam was destroyed on the Ukrainian side. Apparently, this was the cause of the accident, because the dam separates the production acid reservoir from Lake Sivash.
The fact is that the dam is located on both sides of the border, half on the Russian and half on the Ukrainian side.
The destruction was recorded only on September 14,” said director Akulov. Although the ejection itself took place on August 23 and 24, according to other sources, on August 28! However, they harness for a long time!
The situation is reminiscent of the Chernobyl accident, when the authorities knew about the disaster, and people, under the radiation fallout, celebrated the first of May - Workers' Solidarity Day!
But even now, the director responsible for the safety of hazardous production did not really explain the situation. According to the official statement of the same Akulov, scientists are looking into the causes of the accident. To the Moscow Institute named after. Mendeleev, sent fresh air and soil samples. I wonder why don’t scientists come to Crimea? Probably dangerous...
When did the accident at the chemical plant in Crimea begin?
Let us remind you that on the night of August 23-24, an unknown substance spilled into the atmosphere, filling the landscape with smog and a pungent odor. It came from social media, which is full of messages about houses and cars covered in plaque and rust, and about unknown smoke.
A few days later, some residents of Crimea began to notice that the birds from Armyansk had disappeared. Some people have found dead birds in their gardens. In the orchards, fruit trees began to dry out, and people began to experience eye and throat discomfort.
Russian authorities in Crimea and Russian media ignored this event for several days. Sergei Aksenov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Crimea, reported on his Facebook page that there are unknown emissions into the atmosphere and that’s all.
On the same day, the Special Representative for the Environment, Ecology and Transport of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Sergei Ivanov, unexpectedly appeared in Crimea. Upon his arrival, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Crimea, Aksenov, admitted that the Crimean Titan plant may be responsible for the emissions. Although Aksenov initially claimed that the emissions did not pose a health hazard, he later called the emissions harmful.
When many people began to experience breathing problems and panic, Crimean media began reporting that the emissions did not pose a health hazard. Countless air quality controls provided the same predictable result: there was no increase in harmful concentrations above the permissible level in the atmosphere.
From August 28 to September 4, Crimean authorities and Russian media completely ignored the mysterious emissions. Only on September 4 did the authorities begin to evacuate children from Armyansk. Aksenov emphasized that this was not an evacuation, but a holiday, and assured the residents of Armyansk that their health was not at risk and that there was no reason to take emergency measures. Concentrations of air pollutants in northern Crimea “again and again exceed permissible standards.”
The Crimean Titan plant was closed for two weeks. The source of the harmful emissions was identified as acid evaporation from the plant.
The exhaust cloud reached the Kherson region, at least according to the Ukrainian authorities. The State Border Guard of Ukraine reported an increase in pollution along the administrative border with Crimea and temporarily closed the border on September 6.
Ukrainian authorities identified the polluting emissions as sulfur dioxide, an air pollutant that has significant impacts on human health and is a precursor to acid rain. They found that sulfur dioxide levels were six times higher than normal.
Odessa National University biologist Vladislav Balynsky said that sulfur dioxide is a carcinogen that can seriously damage the respiratory tract and burn respiratory membranes.
Ukrainian Ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova informed the UN, OSCE, World Health Organization and the Red Cross about harmful emissions in Armyansk.
The Crimean Titan plant is a chemical plant that began operating in the north of Crimea in 1971. Since the early 2000s, the plant has been part of DF Group, Dmitry Firtash's giant holding company. The plant produces chemicals used in the production of paints, rubber and plastics.
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The release of toxic substances in the north of the republic could have occurred due to the fault of the Russian military. This version is circulating in the Ukrainian media, which are doing their best to inflate the scale of the incident. Meanwhile, the authorities of the peninsula remain calm: the circumstances of the incident are being investigated, and nothing threatens the lives and health of people.
“This is something unprecedented. The release definitely came from Titan (the Crimean Titan chemical plant on the outskirts of the city of Armyansk). Because in the village of Perekop, which is located between Titan and Armyansk, all the vegetation was burned out,” said the former Chairman of the Union of Entrepreneurs of Armyansk Yuri Solomakha. His words are quoted by the Observer publication.
“The most interesting thing is that there are no substances on Titan that could lead to such a result. One of the versions, as a former military man, I can say that it is very similar to the heptyl component (a component of high-boiling rocket fuel). It is quite possible that this is military. But the release came from Titan. This is unambiguous,” the businessman added.
According to local ecologist Margarita Litvinenko, the Crimean Titan plant leaked sulfuric acid or its compounds during one of the production phases. “This substance reacted quickly: rust and an oily coating appeared, and sulfuric acid is an oily substance,” she explained.
Ukrainian media report that residents of Armyansk have been complaining of deterioration in health, dizziness, sore throat, weakness, and skin rashes in recent days. There is an acidic smell in the air. Many even thought about leaving the city. People believe that some kind of chemical was sprayed into the air. They publish photographs of yellowish-white plaque on the walls and roofs of houses, tree leaves and even inside homes.
Apparently, the topic of the chemical attack on Crimea will now seriously and for a long time fall into the spotlight of the Ukrainian press. Previously, with the same pleasure, they wrote that the Crimean Bridge would not be built, and when it was finally built, that it was about to collapse. This did not happen, so now journalists have a new reason for “exposures”.
The authorities of the peninsula reassure citizens, saying that the release of harmful substances does not pose any threat. According to the head of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, supervisory authorities will inspect three enterprises in the north of the peninsula to determine which of them had a leak.
“In fact, the situation there is not good, in my opinion. This is noted by all services. Smog, a certain opacity of the air, some precipitation... At first there was information that it might be the Crimean Titan. But according to the latest information, more inspectors are inclined to the fact that this is the “Crimean Soda Plant” or “Brom”. I don’t want to be unfounded and misinform people, since the reputation of the enterprises could be damaged. The heads of all enterprises deny that this happened to them,” the radio station reports the words of the official. "Sputnik in Crimea".
The regional office of Rospotrebnadzor stated that studies of air samples did not show any deviations from the norms. In particular, the content in the atmosphere of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfuric acid, chlorine, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide does not exceed the established maximum permissible concentrations, reports Sevastopol Media.
On the night of August 23-24, an as yet unknown substance was released in Armyansk. Residents began to publish photographs on social networks of a specific rust coating on metal objects in their homes and on the street. It was initially assumed that the Crimean Titan plant was responsible for this. It began operating in 1971, and in the early 2000s came under the control of Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash's company Groop DF. The main direction of the enterprise is the production of titanium dioxide - a substance that is used in the paint and varnish, rubber industries, in the production of plastics and in many other industries.
