Donetsk, Dec 13 - DAN. The Ukrainian military delivered a large amount of containers supposedly storing ammonia to a canning factory in Mariupol, Donetsk People’s Republic People’s Militia spokesman Daniil Bezsonov said on Thursday.

“Large quantities of containers storing a toxic agent, supposedly ammonia, have been amassed on the premises of the canning factory on Torgovaya Street in central Mariupol,” Bezsonov said. "Eye-witnesses said the military had brought them from the city’s metallurgical plant.”

The cannery is being guarded by armed men wearing no insignia. The spokesman did not rule out that the objective was to blow up the storage site to provoke full-scale fighting in the region.

“We hope that the publication of this information will stop Ukrainian terrorists from implementing the planned provocation at the factory,” he said. “However, the containers can be moved to any other location in the city.”

Earlier reports said that British specialists had arrived in Donbass to organise and guide a chemical attack. Subsequent reports told about Ukraine’s preparations for an offensive in southern Donbass.*jk