Protesters in Ukraine guard biggest weapons cache in eastern Europe
When pro-Russia protesters stormed a police station in Slavyansk, in eastern Ukraine, they seized several hundred firearms. They also took control of the biggest weapons cache in eastern Europe, which lies beneath their feet.
Since March a group of protesters have been guarding the entrance to the Volodarsky salt mine, which holds an underground collection of at least a million firearms ranging from first world war heavy machine guns to Soviet-era Kalashnikovs.
The protesters say they are there to prevent the new government from using the weapons against them, but officials and analysts worry that pro-Russia militias could seize the guns.
"If such a large amount of weapons fell into hands of separatists, it would be a catastrophe," said Alexei Melnik, a defence analyst at the Razumkov centre in Kiev. When Melnik visited the cache in 2002 it held about 3.5m firearms, he said.
The mine is near the village of Paraskoviyevka, 25 miles from Slavyansk, the centre of the uprising by armed pro-Russia militias demanding regional referendums on greater independence from Kiev.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/24/protesters-ukraine-weapons-cache-mine
