Expert assesses colossal consequences of explosions at 51st GRAU arsenal in Russia

This is a significant blow to the Russians’ military capabilities, Narozhny noted.

It is difficult to assess the exact scale of losses from the explosion at the Russian arsenal in the Kirzhach district of the Vladimir region, since Russia is hiding such information, said military expert and founder of the Reaktivna Poshta organization Pavlo Narozhnyi on Radio NV .

“We can give a rough estimate. 200 thousand tons of ammunition were in this arsenal. If we imagine that this was exclusively artillery ammunition, then each shell weighs about 100 kg, that is, 2 million artillery shells. Of course, there were not only artillery shells, but also missiles, rockets, etc. 2 million shells is approximately the annual production of shells of the Russian Federation and the DPRK combined,” Narozhny said.

He noted that this is a significant blow to the Russian military capabilities, which is almost impossible to quickly restore. The expert also called the possibility of extinguishing the fire at the arsenal “unrealistic”.

“Yes, they have special machines to extinguish such fires. But in reality it doesn’t work. In reality it’s impossible to stop it. There were shells for MLRS, rockets. Such a rocket catches fire from the fire, an uncontrolled launch occurs, and it can fly anywhere – 100 meters or 10 kilometers. And other rockets, laid out in the open air, start to explode from it… We can say that 90 percent of this arsenal has been lost,” Narozny added.

(C)UNIAN 2025