Further shelling of Ukrainian nitrogen fertilizer and chemicals plant PJSC Azot Severodonetsk on the evening of June 8 has damaged at least two of the plant’s production units, including the ammonia unit, owner Group DF confirmed in a June 9 statement.
No casualties were reported at the plant, located in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, or in the underground bunkers where more than 500 civilians have been taking shelter and an unspecified number of Ukrainian soldiers are holed up.
Group DF in its June 9 statement also confirmed that no chemical emissions occurred, as all production was halted at the plant and all fertilizers and chemicals removed from the site on the second day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The company reported on March 1 that all ammonia had been processed ahead of the production stoppage, and all finished products taken off the premises (GM March 4, p. 28).
However, on June 11, a fire broke out at the plant after a leak of “tens of tonnes” of oil from damaged radiators at the plant, according to a BBC report, citing the regional head Sehiy Haidai speaking on Ukrainian television.
Azot Severodonetsk, which is operated via Group DF’s Ostchem company, had nameplate production capacity for 1.02 million mt/y of ammonia, 60,000 mt/y of aqueous ammonia, 390,000 mt/y of urea, and 550,000 mt/y of ammonium nitrate, according to Ostchem’s website. The plant’s chemicals production capacity includes 190,000 mt/y for methanol and 150,000 mt/y for acetic acid.
The Severodonetsk operation is one of four nitrogen fertilizer and chemical plants operated by Ostchem in Ukraine.
The city of Severodonetsk has become the latest focal point of Russia’s efforts to advance in eastern Ukraine, and has come under heavy shelling. As of late June 16, Ukraine had refused to give in to calls by Russia for Ukrainian forces at the plant to surrender and for civilians to respond to “an offer” of “a safe” humanitarian corridor.