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About 12,000 people were evacuated after a fire and explosions two to three per second, which hit an ammunition depot of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry early Tuesday morning, officials said.
No casualties have been reported.
The Ukrainian security services announced that they were investigating possible acts of sabotage and the Ministry of Defense spokesman said that explosions had been fired in different parts of the depot denouncing sabotage.
The deposit is located in the Chernihiv region, 176 km east of the capital, Kiev. A woman who lived 50 km away told TV channel 112 that she could hear the explosions.
"There are no casualties, no injuries, no deaths among military personnel, Ukrainian armed forces personnel and the local population," said a statement from the Ministry of Defense. "At 7 o'clock in the morning, the intensity of explosions is two to three seconds."
The airspace within a radius of 30 km was closed and road and rail transport suspended. Emergency services reported that the gas and electricity supply in the area had been disrupted.
Hundreds of people and equipment were deployed to the site, according to a statement from the emergency services, joined by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and the head of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Viktor Muzhenko. The chair called for a report.
Several large fires have affected ammunition and weapons depots in recent years, which represents an additional burden for the Ukrainian army.
Fighting between Ukrainian troops and Moscow-backed separatist rebels has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014.
Last year, massive explosions in a military depot in the Vynnytsya region, 270 km west of Kiev, forced authorities to evacuate 24,000 people.
Following this, a parliamentary defense committee inspected other deposits. He warned that there were significant shortcomings in the management of the deposit in the Chernihiv region, according to a legislator who sat on the committee.
Dmitry Tymchuk wrote on Facebook "a number of shortcomings, of which important ones have been identified". "As a result of this trip, I sent an address to the officials of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces Staff, in which are listed the shortcomings identified by a request for assistance. intervention in the situation and resolution of existing problems. "
The Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
