KYIV: Explosions shook an ammunition depot in Russian-annexed Crimea on Tuesday (Aug 16), the latest such incident in a region used by Moscow as a staging post for its war in Ukraine.
The Russian Defence Ministry said there were no serious casualties from the blasts in the northern Crimean village of Mayskoye, state-owned news agency RIA reported. The agency also reported a fire at a transformer substation 20km away.
The Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea, which Russia seized and annexed from Ukraine in 2014 in a move not recognised by most countries, is the base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and popular in the summer as a holiday resort.
Last week, blasts at a military air base in the city of Novofedorivka, on Crimea’s western coast, caused extensive damage and destroyed several Russian war planes. Moscow called that an accident, though simultaneous blasts at several parts of the base had left craters visible from space.
Ukraine has not officially confirmed or denied responsibility for explosions in Crimea, though its officials have openly cheered incidents in the territory that, until last week, appeared safe in Moscow’s grip beyond range of attack.
“A reminder: Crimea of (a) normal country is about the Black Sea, mountains, recreation and tourism, but Crimea occupied by Russians is about warehouses explosions and high risk of death for invaders and thieves,” Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted after the reports from Mayskoye.
Kyiv aims to disrupt Russian supply lines ahead of a planned Ukrainian counter-attack. Mayskoye is on the main railway line linking Crimea with Russia, and used to supply Russian forces in southern Ukraine.
Like the air base, it is out of the range of the main rockets Western countries acknowledge providing Ukraine so far, suggesting that if the explosions were some form of attack, Kyiv has acquired capability to strike deeper into Russian territory.
With the war raging since Feb 24, attention has also focused in recent days on shelling in the vicinity of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine. Both sides have blamed each other for risks to Europe’s largest nuclear facility, which Russia has seized though Ukrainian technicians operate it.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of using the site as a shield for attacks and risking a nuclear catastrophe. He wants new sanctions on Moscow’s nuclear sector.
Russian officials say it is their enemies who are shelling.
Reuters could not immediately verify battlefield reports.
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