Ukraine Live Day 593: Tank Explodes on Ukrainian Army Base in Dnepropetrovsk, Injuring 4 Soldiers

A tank exploded this evening on an army base in the village of
Cherkasskoye in Dnepropetrovsk Region, injuring 4 Ukrainian soldiers, Unian.net reported.

The
tank belonged to the Ukraine’s 54th Brigade which had been deployed
there from Konstantinovsky District in Donetsk Region on October 1, Hromadske TV reported.

According to Hromadske TV (translation by The Interpreter):

Witnesses report that the tank caught on fire about
17:00.  According to preliminary information, four servicemen were hurt
and none were killed. After all 24 mortars in the tank exploded it
spread to a round of ammunition next to it.

A soldiers of the 54th Brigade said they did not manage to put out the fire in time, which is why the ammunition exploded:

Somewhere
at about 5:00 o’clock or just after five o’clock, the tank caught on
fire. They couldn’t manage to extinguish it in time, so they began dragging
away from it other nearby vehicles — the same kind of tanks, because they
had rounds of ammunition in them. Later the tank’s ammunition exploded.
People came running from all over the training ground, since the
shrapnel flew in a radius of about 200-300 meters. As a result several
guys were hurt; they were burnt and suffered concussions when they
tried to extinguish the tank. When the first mortar exploded, there was a
shock wave from the explosion in the tank.

The reason for the fire has not been discovered.

Last
week a tank caught on fire at a tank biathlon organized in Donetsk by
the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic,” killing one child and
injuring another.

—  Catherine A. Fitzpatrick