Explosions and fires ripped through an ammunition depot in Russian-held Crimea on Tuesday in the second suspected Ukrainian attack on the peninsula in just over a week, forcing the evacuation of more than 3,000 people. Russia blamed the explosions in the village of Mayskoye on an “act of sabotage”, without naming the perpetrators. Separately, Russian business newspaper Kommersant cited residents as saying plumes of black smoke also rose over an air base in Gvardeyskoye, Crimea. Ukraine has not publicly claimed responsibility for any of the blasts, including those that destroyed nine Russian jets at another Crimean air base last week. Russia seized the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and has used it to launch attacks against Ukraine in the war that began nearly six months ago. If Ukrainian forces were behind the blasts, it would represent a major escalation of the war. Such attacks could also indicate that Ukrainian agents are able to penetrate deep into Russian-occupied territories. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy referred to Ukrainian attacks behind enemy lines when he included people “opposing the occupiers in their rear” on a list of people he thanked for supporting the country’s war effort. In a video address on Tuesday night, he also warned people not to go near Russian military facilities and storage areas for ammunition and equipment. In another reported act of sabotage, Russia’s Tass news agency cited the FSB security agency as saying Ukrainian agents blew up six high-voltage transmission towers earlier this month in Russia’s Kursk region, near Ukraine. The Kremlin has demanded that Kyiv recognize Crimea as part of Russia as a condition for an end to the fighting, while Ukraine has pledged to expel Moscow’s forces from the Black Sea peninsula. Videos posted on social media showed thick columns of smoke rising above raging flames in Mayskoye and a series of explosions could be heard. The Russian Defense Ministry said a power plant, power lines, railway lines and apartment buildings were damaged. “We went outside to take a look and saw clouds of smoke coming out of the cowshed where the military depots are,” resident Maksim Moldovskiy said. “We stayed there until about 7-8 in the morning. Everything was going off – flash, shrapnel, debris was falling on us. Then the emergency guys came and said they were evacuating everybody.” Crimean regional leader Sergei Aksionov said two people were injured and more than 3,000 were evacuated from two villages. “The explosions are rather powerful. Ammunition is scattered all over the ground,” he said, adding that several houses were burnt. In retaliation for the attacks in Crimea, Russian warplanes fired missiles at a military airfield in Zhytomyr, 87 miles (140 kilometers) west of Kiev, damaging a runway and vehicles, Ukrainian officials said. Crimea is a popular summer destination for Russian tourists, and last week’s explosions at Crimea’s Saki air base sent beachgoers fleeing as flames and plumes of smoke rose to the horizon. Ukrainian officials warned on Tuesday that Crimea would not be spared the ravages of war. Instead of a travel destination, “Russian-captured Crimea is all about warehouse explosions and high risk of death for intruders and thieves,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak tweeted. Russia blamed last week’s blasts on an accidental munitions detonation, but satellite photos and other evidence – including scattered explosion sites – point to a Ukrainian attack, perhaps with anti-ship missiles, military analysts said. Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in an intelligence briefing that ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet are in an “extremely defensive posture” in the waters off Crimea, with the ships barely out of sight of the coastline. Russia’s flagship Moskva sank in the Black Sea in April, and last month Ukrainian forces recaptured the strategic Snake Island. The limited effectiveness of the Russian fleet undermines Russia’s overall invasion strategy, the British said. “This means Ukraine can divert resources to push Russian ground forces elsewhere.” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu charged that in addition to supplying Ukraine with weapons, Western allies have provided detailed information and trainers to help Ukraine operate weapons that can strike deep into occupied territory. “Western intelligence services have not only provided coordinates of targets for launching strikes, but Western experts have also overseen the input of this data into weapon systems,” Shoigu said. In other developments:
A UN-chartered ship loaded with Ukrainian grain has set sail for the hungry Horn of Africa in the first such aid delivery of the war. The mission was made possible through an international mediation to free grain trapped in Ukrainian ports by the fighting and create safe corridors through the mined water of the Black Sea. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres plans to travel to Ukraine for a meeting Thursday in the western city of Lviv with Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They are expected to discuss grain shipments and a possible fact-finding mission to the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of bombing. Guterres will also visit Odessa on Friday. During Guterres’ last trip to Ukraine in April, Russian forces launched an airstrike in Kyiv while he was visiting the capital. Russian shelling killed at least two civilians in the industrial region of Donbas in the east and the city of Kharkiv in the northeast, Ukrainian authorities said.
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Associated Press United Nations writer Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report.
