Impressive Amount of Ammunition Destroyed by Military Engineers in Stefan Voda

CHISINAU, March 22, 2019 — The engineers of “Codru” Battalion from Negresti disposed of an ammunition arsenal in Marianca de Jos village, Stefan Voda district.

The 234 explosive objects have been discovered by a local during agricultural works. He alerted the authorities who, in their turn, requested the service members’ assistance.

The engineer team, led by 1st Lt Ion Golovei, identified 206 artillery projectiles of 47mm, 76mm, and 105mm caliber, three bomb-launcher bombs of 82mm and 50mm caliber and 22 warheads.

The ammunition dated back to World War II, was of German production, and was disposed by the engineers under maximum security conditions.

Since the beginning of this year, the military engineers have conducted 21 demining missions throughout the country, disposing of 319 explosive objects of various calibers.

IMPORTANT: Taking into account that the most part of explosive objects are found by locals during agricultural works, the military engineers are informing that it is forbidden to touch the ammunition with the hands or with other objects, to kick or move the ammunition found in the soil or on surface, to dismantle the warheads or other components, for children to play with different ammunition elements, to transport or take the ammunition inside buildings or houses.

At the same time, the citizens should know that it is forbidden the access of people, especially children, to the areas in which exist or it is supposed the existence of unexploded objects, to manually or mechanically dig in these areas, to work the land, to cross with vehicles or animals. In these cases, those who find the ammunition must immediately inform the local authorities who will request the assistance of engineer teams.

Regardless of the conditions or age of ammunition elements, the danger that they might be active and explode is maximal. Thus, any operation on the unexploded ammunition must be conducted only by specialized personnel, in strict compliance with security procedures.

Since 1992 and so far, 23 persons died and 26 were wounded as a result of the explosion of different ammunition. Out of the total number of victims, seven children died, and other three were wounded.