24 May, Polotsk /Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. Employees of the Department of the State Security Committee for the Vitebsk Region, during operational search activities, discovered the largest batch of ammunition from the Great Patriotic War period in recent years, BELTA was informed by the press group of the DSC Department for the Vitebsk Region. As a result of operational search activities conducted in a forest area near one of the settlements in the Vitebsk District, 289 rounds of ammunition were found: 252 mortar shells of 81 mm calibre, 8 artillery shells of 76 mm calibre, 1 artillery shell of 45 mm calibre, 3 artillery fuses, and 25 cartridge cases with primers, which in TNT equivalent amounts to about 140 kg. Despite the fact that the ammunition had been in the ground for about 70 years, all of them had fuses and posed a particular danger. Employees of the DSC Department for the Vitebsk Region, in cooperation with specialists from the sapper-pyrotechnic group of military unit 5524, neutralised the ammunition depot. Since the beginning of the year, employees of the DSC Department for the Vitebsk Region, together with specialists from military unit 5524, have seized and destroyed over 25 kg of ammunition in TNT equivalent. However, the discovered batch became the largest in recent years. -0-

BELTA