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 above 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 Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and has used it to launch attacks against the country in a war that began nearly six months ago. In another reported act of sabotage, Russia’s Tass news agency cited the FSB security service as saying Ukrainian agents blew up six high-voltage transmission towers earlier this month in Russia’s Kursk region, near Ukraine. If Ukrainian forces were behind the explosions in Crimea, it would represent a major escalation of the war. Such attacks could also indicate that Ukrainian agents are able to penetrate deep into Russian-held territory, complementing efforts to weaken Moscow’s frontline forces. “Frankly, this changes the front across the board,” retired U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer Hal Kaempfer told CBS News senior foreign correspondent Charlie D’Agata after the attack last week. “If they can keep the momentum going, if they can keep hitting deep, if they can keep making gains across the Kherson Region, they might be able to push all the way down that south side.” This strike prompted a swift, brutal response from Russia. President Vladimir Putin’s forces have responded with increased shelling and rocket attacks on towns and villages in southern 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. This still frame from UGC video taken on a smartphone and released on the ESN platform on August 16, 2022 shows fire and smoke billowing from the ammunition depot in Crimea early August 16, 2022. MARIE-LAURE MESSANA/ESN/AFP via Getty Images 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 the fires damaged a power plant, power lines, railway lines and apartment buildings. “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 exploding — 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. Crimea is a popular summer destination for Russian tourists, and last week’s explosions at Crimea’s Saki airbase 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. Smoke is seen rising in the distance from the beach in Saky, on Ukraine’s Russian-held Crimean peninsula, after explosions rocked a Russian military base near Novofedorivka, Crimea, Aug. 9, 2022. UGC via AP 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. Meanwhile, in Donbas, the industrial enclave in the east that has been the focus of fighting in recent months, one civilian was killed by Russian shelling and two others were wounded, according to the Ukrainian regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko. In Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, one civilian was killed and nine others wounded by Russian shelling, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said. He said the overnight attack was “one of the most massive bombings in Kharkiv in recent days”. One piece of good news has emerged from the region: A United Nations-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 internationally brokered deal to release grain that had been trapped in Ukrainian ports by the fighting. More
