Russia accused saboteurs for explosions at one of its military outposts in Moscow-annexed Crimea, while Kiev implied it was to blame, saying their objective was to undermine supply lines supporting Russia’s incursion.
According to Russian officials and news media, the explosions on Tuesday consumed a munitions storage at a military facility in the north of the Crimean peninsula, halting trains and prompting the evacuation of 2,000 residents from a neighbouring hamlet.
Smoke plumes were subsequently detected at a second Russian military facility in central Crimea, according to Russia’s Kommersant newspaper. The blasts at a Russian military air facility in western Crimea last week damaged eight jets.
The blasts at the munitions store on Tuesday were “the consequence of sabotage,” according to Russia’s defence ministry. The Crimean peninsula, which Moscow acquired in 2014, serves as the major supply route for Russian soldiers in southern Ukraine and serves as a base for the Russian Black Sea navy.
Ukraine did neither confirm or deny responsibility for the blasts, but its authorities openly congratulated Russia on its defeat.
Both presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak and chief of staff Andriy Yermak celebrated “demilitarisation” on social media, an apparent satirical allusion to the term Russia employs to legitimise its invasion.
“Operation ‘demilitarisation’ in the precise style of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will continue until the complete de-occupation of Ukraine’s territories,” Yermak said on Telegram.
Later, Podolyak told the UK’s Guardian newspaper that Ukraine’s objective was to destroy Russia “logistics, supply lines and ammunition depots and other objects of military infrastructure. It’s creating chaos within their own forces.”
The explosions highlighted the prospect of new dynamics in the six-month-old war whether Ukraine now has the power to strike deeper in Russian-occupied territory or pro-Kyiv forces are finding success with guerrilla-style operations as Kyiv weighs a future counter-offensive in the south.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy encouraged Ukrainians to avoid Russian military outposts and ammunition warehouses, saying the explosions might be caused by a variety of factors, including negligence.
“But they all mean the same thing – the destruction of the occupiers’ logistics, their ammunition, military and other equipment, and command posts, saves the lives of our people,” he added in an evening speech.
According to a video seen on Russian official television, a power substation caught fire during Tuesday’s explosions. Seven trains were delayed, and rail activity on a section of the line in northern Crimea was interrupted, according to Russia’s RIA news agency.
