Kyiv has hinted at involvement, which, if true, could show a new ability to strike deeper into Russian territory, potentially changing the dynamics of the six-month conflict. Calling the incident “sabotage”, Moscow confirmed that two people were injured, rail traffic was disrupted and around 2,000 people in a nearby village were evacuated. The Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 in a move not recognized by most countries, is the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and a popular summer holiday resort. A view shows smoke rising above an electrical transformer substation, which caught fire after an explosion in Crimea’s Dzhankoi region on Tuesday. (Reuters) Last week, explosions at another military airbase on Crimea’s western coast caused extensive damage and destroyed several Russian warplanes. In Tuesday’s incident, a power substation also caught fire near the town of Dzhankoi in northern Crimea, according to footage from Russian state television. It showed explosions on the horizon that authorities said came from the munitions detonating. Russia’s RIA news agency reported that seven passenger trains had been delayed and that rail traffic on a section of the line in northern Crimea had been suspended. This could disrupt its ability to support troops in Ukraine with military hardware. Ukraine has not officially confirmed or denied responsibility for the blasts in Crimea, although its officials have openly cheered the incidents in territory that, until last week, seemed safely in Moscow’s grip beyond the scope of the attack. WATCHES | Explosions mark military airbase in Crimea:
Explosions were reported near a Russian airbase in Crimea
Witnesses say they saw and heard several explosions coming from the direction of a Russian military air base in western Crimea, the peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. After Tuesday’s new explosions, Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak and chief of staff Andriy Yermak expressed their joy on social media at “demilitarization”: an apparent mocking reference to the word Russia uses to justify the invasion her. “A reminder: Crimea [as a] The normal country is about the Black Sea, mountains, recreation and tourism, but Russian-occupied Crimea is about warehouse explosions and a high risk of death for intruders and thieves. Demilitarization in action,” Podolyak tweeted. “Operation ‘demilitarization’ in the precise style of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will continue until the full occupation of the territories of Ukraine,” Yermak wrote on Telegram.
Mystery Weapons
In another incident on Tuesday, plumes of smoke appeared at a Russian military air base near the settlement of Hvardiyske in central Crimea, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported. Kyiv aims to disrupt Russian supply lines ahead of a planned Ukrainian counterattack. Russia’s Crimean bases are mostly out of range of the main rockets that Western countries acknowledge they gave to Ukraine, raising the prospect that it has acquired a new capability. LISTEN | Nuclear plant under Russian occupation sparks fears of disaster: The Current19:25 Fears of disaster at Russian-controlled Ukrainian nuclear plant In Ukraine, a Russian-held nuclear power plant is warning the international community of potential disaster. Guest host Michelle Shephard discusses the risks with Associated Press international correspondent Philip Crowther. and Mariana Budjeryn, a Ukrainian nuclear expert at Harvard’s Belfer Center. With the war raging since February 24, attention has also focused in recent days on the shelling 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 but is operated by Ukrainian technicians. The conflict has displaced millions, killed thousands and deepened a geopolitical rift between Moscow and the West.
Putin makes the latest denunciation of the West
Russia calls the invasion a “special military operation” to demilitarize its neighbor, protect Russian-speaking communities and push back against the expansion of the NATO military alliance. Ukraine and Western backers accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of waging an imperialist-style war of conquest. In a speech at a security conference, Putin accused the United States of trying to drag out the war in Ukraine by supporting the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while stoking friction in Asia. He cited the AUKUS security pact between Australia, Britain and the United States as evidence of Western efforts to build a NATO-style bloc in the Asia-Pacific region. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit this month to Taiwan, which China claims as its own, was “part of a deliberate, conscious US strategy to destabilize and spiral into chaos in the region and the world.” Putin said.
Grain heads to Africa after delays
Even as the biggest attack on a European state since 1945, progress was made on a grain deal to ease the global food crisis created by falling Ukrainian exports. The ship Brave Commander departed from the Ukrainian port of Pivdennyi, carrying the first cargo of humanitarian food aid bound for Africa from Ukraine since the Russian invasion. The bulk carrier Brave Commander departs Tuesday from the port of Pivdennyi near Odessa, Ukraine. According to the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, the ship under the flag of Lebanon will export 23 thousand tons of Ukrainian wheat. (Nina Lyashonok/The Associated Press) On the battlefield, the sides reported no significant changes in positions. Ukraine reported continued Russian shelling and rocket attacks in the eastern Donbas region and success in repelling an attempted Russian advance near the Lysychansk oil refinery in the Luhansk region of Donbas.
