As reported by the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ukraine in the city of Kovel, today at 10:00 preparatory work for raising World War II bombs from the bottom of the Turiya River was resumed. Yesterday, 4 FAB-100 bombs out of seven were raised and one was neutralized. Yesterday, after sapper work was completed, the evacuated population returned to their homes. Today at 8:00, about 2,500 residents of Kovel within a 1 km radius of the work site were again temporarily evacuated. As reported by the Kovel city department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ukraine, it is currently unknown what to do with the largest and most powerful FAB-250 bomb, which has two fuses in a cocked combat state. According to technical specifications, such a bomb is prohibited not only from being transported, but also from being lifted. Some of the evacuated residents will stay in the sanatorium-preventorium of the UKovelsilmashF plant and one of the city's schools. Doctors are constantly on duty at the population gathering places. In addition to residential areas, four schools, two markets, and other objects have UfallenF within the dangerous one-kilometer zone. This entire territory is blocked and patrolled by military and law enforcement formations. A road has been laid to the sapper work site, and a platform has been built near the river itself, on which a crane for lifting aerial bombs has been installed. On the bomb transportation routes, vehicles with loudspeakers warn the population of possible danger. Train traffic has been temporarily suspended across two railway bridges in the Polish and Belarusian directions, near which sappers will be working.
On May 13, an amateur diver found 7 Soviet aerial bombs on the bottom of the Turiya River in Kovel - 6 FAB-100 bombs and one FAB-250. The latter is the largest and most powerful, weighing about three hundred kilograms and having two fuses in a cocked combat state. According to technical specifications, such a bomb is prohibited not only from being transported, but also from being lifted. Therefore, the possibility of detonating it on site is not ruled out.