Russia tests missiles on Kazakhs before targeting Ukraine
The Kapustin Yar missile range is based in Astrakhan Oblast, Russia, but the anti-aircraft and ballistic missiles tested there fly towards Kazakhstan and fall in Bokey Orda, writes Novaya Gazeta Europe on Feb. 21.
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A steppe is located in Bokey Orda, which includes a specially protected natural reserve, the article said.
After the tests, the missiles will eventually be used to kill Ukrainians, but first, they are tested on Kazakhs, the journalists said. The missiles dump fuel on their steppes, debris falls near their homes, kills their livestock, and the Kazakhs have to extinguish the fires that break out.
The environmental consequences are even more severe: adults in Bokey Orda die of cancer, and children are born with disabilities.
When Kazakhstan became independent, the testing of Russian missiles on its territory did not cease; now, the country leases land for landfills, the article said.
The testing range occupies half of the entire area of the district in Bokey Orda, totaling 943 thousand hectares. For the lease of all landfills, Russia pays $2.3 per hectare per year.
This is nothing, said the guide, Nagim Tajmuratov.
"I pay more for the rent of land for livestock,” he said.
“Don't the Russians have taiga? Why don't they test there? They launch missiles only when the wind is from the west, from the side of Kap-Yar, and the fragments fly in our direction. On such days, we cannot leave the house. Nobody knows where it will fall. There were cases when, before the tests, the Russian military came to us and took the residents of villages 10 kilometers away."
Those people had to get back on their own, Tajmuratov said.
"Now they have started shelling in our direction too,” he said.
“You have a war going on; they are probably testing shells on our land too."
Under the terms of the contract, Russia must, among other things, rehabilitate the land of the testing range. However, Tajmuratov cannot recall a single instance in his entire life when Russian soldiers filled in at least one crater left after a missile fell.
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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
