As a result of a fire in a military warehouse near the town of Balaklia in the Kharkiv region, ammunition worth $ 1 billion was destroyed, head of the National Security and Defense Committee Serhiy Pashynsky (People's Front faction) told on Channel 5.

"Balaklia is not the first. Similar incident took place in Bohdanivka 10 years ago, when ammunition was being exploded during a week. We inherited millions of tons of ammunition from the Soviet Union. These ammunitions are those that are no longer suitable, and those that we really need. We need to discern the ammunition that we need to be stored in special concrete storages with fire extinguishing systems and for those that are not needed, there must be a special program for their further destruction," Pashynsky said.

"What is the tragedy of Balaklia? There were tens of thousands of combat-effective ammunition and tens of thousands of combat-ineffective ammunition. When this chain reaction took place, we lost $ 1 billion of ammunition, which is unacceptable, because we are not such a rich country that can afford it," he said.

As it was reported, at night of March 23, explosions began at the ammunition storage depots near the town of Balaklia, Kharkiv region.