Report: 2 victims of Russian missile explosion died of radiation sickness

MOSCOW — Two of the Russian specialists killed in the explosion at a White Sea missile testing range died not of traumatic injuries from the blast itself but of radiation sickness before they could be taken to Moscow for treatment, the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported Wednesday.

The paper cited an unnamed medical worker who was involved in their care. “Two of the patients did not make it to the airport and died,” the person said. “The radiation dose was very high, and symptoms of radiation sickness grew every hour.”

Their bodies were taken to the Burnazyan Federal Medical and Biophysical Center in Moscow, a leading institution in the fields of radioactive and nuclear medicine.

The explosion occurred Aug. 8, on a sea-based platform off the village of Nyonoksa, in Russia’s far north. Rosatom, Russia’s atomic agency, said a device employing “isotopic sources of fuel on a liquid propulsion unit” was destroyed. Few additional details were provided.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that a “nuclear-propelled missile” was being tested, giving credence to the suggestion that it involved a prototype of a weapon designated as Skyfall by NATO and called Burevestnik by Russia.

The newspaper report does not clarify the extent of casualties, and the information that has been reported may not be consistent. Rosatom reported that five of its workers died when they were blown off the platform into the sea; the Defense Ministry said two people were killed.