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                        THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2024
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GISMETEO.RU
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Authorities probe top Stirol management
Journal Staff Report

KIEV, Aug. 7 – Law enforcement agencies are probing Stirol’s top management after the chemical company failed to promptly report Tuesday’s deadly ammonia leak to the authorities, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The leak on Tuesday killed five and injured 26 workers following a rupture of an ammonia pipeline that suspended operation of one of the country’s largest producers of mineral fertilizers.

Anatoliy Pryshko, a deputy prosecutor general, said Stirol’s top management failed to promptly inform the authorities about the blast and the leak that may have caused a delay of the rescue operation.

“The notice of the accident to the authorities has come after a certain time,” Pryshko told Channel 5 television. “This is being investigated. Why did this happen, why didn’t they immediately report? We will figure this out during the investigation.”

A cloud of ammonia covered a big part of the Stirol company in Horlivka, the Donetsk region, Tuesday afternoon with rescue teams working for almost seven hours before the ammonia leakage had been stopped.

Workers at Stirol were instructed to put on gas masks and to evacuate, but the masks were designed for only five minutes of breathing, which apparently had caused heavy poisoning of workers.

Stirol is one of Ukraine's biggest mineral fertilizer producers and is part of a business empire Ostchem Holding, owned by billionaire Dmytro Firtash.

Ostchem’s other assets include Ukrainian producers of nitrogen fertilizers Severdonetsk Azot, Cherkasy Azot and RivneAzot, but also Nitrofert in Estonia and TajikAzot in Tajikistan.

Deputy Prime Minister Yuriy Boyko, who leads the government’s commission investigating the deadly accident, indicated on Wednesday that the top management may have indeed failed to inform the authorities.

Boyko said new regulations to be developed that clearly stipulate an order of actions by the top management at companies that handle hazardous materials to promptly report the accidents.

"We need to create the appropriate rules of interaction and responsibility of people at the company for failure to provide information,” Boyko said. “What has to be drafted is a list of companies and procedures to be followed.”

Boyko, who is known to be a long-time ally of Firtash, said the government will make sure that families of victims will be provided with help.

"The task of the government commission is to identify ways of avoiding this in the future and to help the victims and families of victims,” he said. “This is what we focus on.”

Firtash’s Group DF, which manages Ostchem Holding assets, said on Wednesday it will allocate 1 million hryvnias to families of each killed workers.

Group DF will also finance medical and healthcare bills of those 26 workers that have been sickened by the accident in addition to undisclosed financial payouts. (tl/ez)




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