Defense Minister of Ukraine Stepan Poltorak says that the burning ammunition depots located near the town of Chernihiv region were half full at the time of the emergency, since the critical and scarce ammunition for the Armed Forces had been previously relocated to other storage sites.

"According to Stepan Poltorak, at the time of the blast, the arms depots were filled by 50% - the most scarce and critical for the Armed Forces of Ukraine ammunition from the sixth military arsenal had been previously redeployed to other arsenals and bases with a protected type of storage," the presidential press service quoted Poltorak on Tuesday evening at a meeting of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko with the law enforcement chiefs.

Poltorak also informed that as of Tuesday, about a third of the military arsenal was on fire.

"As of 15:00, as a result of detonation, fire covered about 30% of the entire arsenal," he said, adding that measures are currently being implemented to localize and extinguish the fire, for which two special fire-fighting tanks are already being used and three more such tanks are expected to arrive soon to the scene.