On 21 March 2022 during the Battle of Sumy, a Russian airstrike damaged one of the ammonia tanks at a Sumykhimpromfertilizer factory, contaminating land within a 2.5 km radius including the villages of Novoselytsya and Verkhnya Syrovatka.[1][2] Due to the direction of the wind, the city of Sumy was largely unaffected despite its proximity to the leak.[3]
Two days prior to the leak Mikhail Mizintsev, the Chief of Russia's National Defense Management Center claimed that Ukrainian nationalists were plotting a false flag chemical attack in Sumy. Mizintsev alleged on 19 March that mines had been placed in chemical storage facilities at the plant to poison residents in case of Russian troops advancement into the city. He also alleged that a secondary school was similarly sabotaged in Kotlyarovo, Mykolaiv Oblast.[4]
