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Amateur video footage out of Ukraine shows a military munitions depot exploding in dramatic fashion. The disaster occurred March 23 in the eastern Ukrainian town of Balakliya, and reportedly was the result of a fire started in an act of sabotage, according to Al Jazeera, citing Ukrainian military officials.
Ukrainian officials have linked the incident to Russian-backed separatists nearby.
"We have a 'friendly' country - the Russian Federation," Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak told Reuters. "I think that first of all it could be representatives who help the (separatist) groups that carry out combat missions.”
The weapons depot was just 100 kilometers from territory held by the Russian-backed separatists who have been fighting Ukrainian government forces since 2014, according to the BBC. The weapons destroyed Thursday were used to support the Ukrainian military forces in that fight.
While investigators are looking into how the fire started, with sabotage being the most likely suspect, one official interviewed by the BBC said that the separatists could have used a drone to ignite the blaze. The use of a drone to destroy that same facility was reportedly attempted in December 2015.
No deaths have been reported by the government, which is remarkable considering the scale of the explosions, but roughly 20,000 residents of Balakliya had to be evacuated from the region.
The footage is insane, with subsequent secondary explosions stacking up and rockets cooking off and firing, some leaving smoke trails all over the city. According to the Al Jazeera report, the weapons dump held more than 10,000 tons of munitions and missiles.
Take a look below.
The new acting Navy secretary wants a fleet larger than the current 355-hull plan
Editor's Note: This article by Matthew Cox originally appeared onMilitary.com, a leading source of news for the military and veteran community.
The new acting secretary of the Navy said recently that he is open to designing a fleet that is larger than the current 355-ship plan, one that relies significantly on unmanned systems rather than solely on traditional gray hulls.
Pardoned soldiers Lorance, Golsteyn were recently special guests at a Trump fundraiser
President Donald Trump, speaking during a closed-door speech to Republican Party of Florida donors at the state party's annual Statesman's Dinner, was in "rare form" Saturday night.
The dinner, which raised $3.5 million for the state party, was met with unusual secrecy. The 1,000 attendees were required to check their cell phones into individual locked cases before they entered the unmarked ballroom at the south end of the resort. Reporters were not allowed to attend.
But the secrecy was key to Trump's performance, which attendees called "hilarious."
Riding the high of the successful event turnout — and without the pressure of press or cell phones — Trump transformed into a "total comedian," according to six people who attended the event and spoke afterward to the Miami Herald.
He also pulled an unusual move, bringing on stage Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, who Trump pardoned last month for cases involving war crimes. Lorance was serving a 19-year sentence for ordering his soldiers shoot at unarmed men in Afghanistan, and Golsteyn was to stand trial for the 2010 extrajudicial killing of a suspected bomb maker.
A Tuskegee Airman celebrates his100th birthday with one more flight
Retired Col. Charles McGee stepped out of the small commercial jet and flashed a smile.
Then a thumbs-up.
McGee had returned on a round-trip flight Friday morning from Dover Air Force Base, where he served as co-pilot on one of two flights done especially for his birthday.
By the way he disembarked from the plane, it was hard to tell that McGee, a Tuskegee Airman, was turning 100.
A new law could finally force DoD to compensate troops who suffered from military doctors' mistakes
The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act would allow service members to seek compensation when military doctors make mistakes that harm them, but they would still be unable to file medical malpractice lawsuits against the federal government.
On Monday night, Congress announced that it had finalized the NDAA, which must be passed by the House and Senate before going to President Donald Trump. If the president signs the NDAA into law, it would mark the first time in nearly seven decades that U.S. military personnel have had legal recourse to seek payment from the military in cases of medical malpractice.
Army major with Cyber Command charged with distributing child pornography
A major serving at U.S. Army Cyber Command has been charged with distributing child pornography, according to the Justice Department.
Maj. Jason Michael Musgrove, who is based at Fort Gordon, Georgia, has been remanded to the U.S. Marshals service, a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia says.