The last chemical aviation bomb was sent for disposal at the Maradykovsky facility for the storage and destruction of chemical weapons in the Kirov region, chief of the Federal Directorate for safe storage and destruction of chemical weapons Col. Gen. Valery Kapashin told Interfax-AVN on Sept.11.
"Maradykovsky became the fourth one, following the facilities Gorny in the Saratov region, Kambarka in Udmurtia and Leonidovka in the Penza region which performed the set task fully and, most importantly, safely. Some 6,900 tonnes of toxic agents charged in more than 40,000 [items of] aviation chemical ammunition were destroyed here. Some of them are [items of] ammunition with a sophisticated design which contained not only the toxic substance, but also explosives, and it was impossible to extract it," Kapashin said.
In his view, the Federal Directorate jointly with Russian scientists and engineers "coped with all difficulties with honor". "Meanwhile, only domestic technologies of chemical weapons destruction were used," the general said.
"Before the end of this year the destruction of chemical weapons will be also completed fully in the Bryansk region [the Pochep facility] and in the Kurgan region [the Shchuchye facility]," Kapashin said.
In the future the Russian chemical disarmament program will be continued at the Kizner chemical arms disposal facility in Udmurtia, which was the last one to be put into operation in December 2013. By now around 39 percent of existing toxic agent stocks have been destroyed in Kizner and more than 91 percent in Russia as a whole, Kapashin said.