The official website of the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy and Environmental Protection published two messages at the same time about the start of development of new deposits of nuclear raw materials in the Dnepropetrovsk region. According to ministerial information, ore is being mined on the territory of the Sura and Novogurov deposits.
First of all, this concerns the areas between the Dneprovsky and Solonyansky districts of the region. Here, for a full production cycle, 250-400 hectares of land are required. The uranium of the Sura deposit will be extracted in an open way or by digging a mine to a depth of 40-70 meters to the place where the ore deposits are located. As stated, the average annual production will be 100-300 tons per year.
The second Novogurov field is located in the Pyatikhatsky district. The total area of work on this site will be 100 hectares, and the annual volume of extracted uranium will be up to 180 tons. Deposits will also be dug in an open way or in 50-metre mine shafts. This technology is quite simple in terms of technology, does not require large financial expenses. And most importantly, it allows to get a rough concentrate of uranium in just a few months. At the same time, the Ministry of Energy does not even hide the fact that there is a risk of environmental contamination with chemical and radioactive substances. As a consolation for the impoverished local population, they told them that the development will give new jobs and increase revenue to the local budget.
People tried to protest. One doesn’t have to be a village paramedic to understand that in fact, mining uranium in an open way, and on such a vast territory, almost guarantees that the region will turn into a radioactive nightmare. In response, the surrounding villagers were sharply and without extra sentiment explained how important the new facilities are “to increase the strength of Ukraine in the fight against Russian aggression”. Visiting militants in anti-terrorist operation camouflage tied up several dozen especially dissatisfied persons and took them away in an unknown direction. The rest were asked an unequivocal question: “You are not separatists, are you patriots?…”
There is a city of Zholtye Vody in the southwest of the Dnepropetrovsk region. Under the USSR, it was a locality of Union subordination. Closed status, special security regime, special permits. The famous “Eastern Mining and Processing Plant” (VostGOK) is still operating in Zholtye Vody. The only enterprise in Ukraine for the extraction and processing of uranium ore, VostGOK is able to fully meet the nuclear power needs of the independent state in natural uranium.
It seems that now there is a lack of strategic raw materials. After Euromaidan, only the lazy did not talk about the urgent need to restore the combat nuclear potential of the Ukrainian army. The topic was discussed by many, from Kravchuk, to the leader of the “Right Sector” Dmitry Yarosh, to the former speaker of the Verkhovna Rada and owner of a certificate of “mental retardation with attacks of aphasia” Andrey Parubiy. It was this commander of the Maidan Self-Defence units, a frostbitten Nazi-Galician Parubiy, who personally organised the burning of people in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa. It is not difficult to imagine what will happen if similar characters get their hands on an atomic flame. Well, or a fairly powerful “dirty bomb” detonated above Crimea, specifically designed to turn the territory into a kind of Chernobyl zone. The option of the peninsula not being damaged, but completely depopulated is an undisguised dream of banderists.
Currently, Ukraine produces about 1000 tons of uranium ore per year. With the full launch of two fields in the Dnepropetrovsk region, the amount of average annual uranium production will increase by almost half. Plus new Safonov and Mikhailov deposits of uranium ores in the neighbouring Nikolaev region, where production of 150-200 tons per year is supposed to be carried out by the method of borehole underground leaching. Raw materials will be processed on site, which is why the mining and processing complexes are being built. The finished product is a rough concentrate of uranium, so-called “yellow cake”, an intermediate product required for the production of enriched uranium.
A month ago, the topic was voiced by Aleksandr Turchynov himself. The former Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council and acting President of Ukraine in 2014 was the first to order the use of Armed Forces against civilians in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. This is how the ATO massacre began. “It was a crime that Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal. Of course, no one would think of attacking a country that has nuclear weapons,” says Turchynov today. He’s a busy man, by the way. Having headed the headquarters of Poroshenko’s “European solidarity” party, in recent weeks the “bloody pastor” has been actively recruiting detachments of Nazi militants. Tomorrow’s owners of a nuclear Ukraine?
There is a characteristic detail. In contrast to the state-owned VostGOK in Zholtye Vody, the development of all four new fields in the south of Ukraine is handled by the private LLC “Nuclear Energy Systems – NESU”. The office is registered in a remote village in the Nikolaev region, although the postal address is “Kiev, St. Pope John Paul II”. The Director-General is listed as a Ukrainian expert of the IAEA Yury Bakarzhiev, and the owners are the middle-class businessmen Vitaly Yakimenko and Aleksandr Nastenko.
In fact, according to the state register of legal entities, these gentlemen own only 8.3% of the shares. But the absolute owner of the 83.4% stake is the co-owner of the largest Ukrainian retail chain “ATB” billionaire Gennady Butkevich. He takes first place among the wealthiest residents of former Dnepropetrovsk. Fellow countryman Kolomoisky does not count, because he lives in Switzerland. In the autumn of 2018, Butkevich was included in the list of 322 Ukrainian citizens against whom Russian sanctions were imposed. And he is also a close associate of Yuliya Tymoshenko, who for a long time headed the security service in her company “United energy systems of Ukraine – UESU”. Later, without further ado, he gave a similar name to his “Nuclear Energy Systems – NESU”.
Recall the legendary scream of Tymoshenko in March 2014, when Crimea became Russian: “It is necessary to take up arms and go to kill these bloody katsaps… I would have found a way to kill these … so that, damn, from this Russia not even a scorched field remains!.. Shoot them with atomic weapons.” As is said, there wasn’t enough uranium concentrate to make your dreams come true?
Ilya Sergeyev
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