Powerful explosions shook a Russian airbase in Crimea on Tuesday, sending towering clouds of smoke over the landscape, potentially escalating the conflict in Ukraine. According to officials, at least one person was dead and numerous more were injured. Moscow holds the detonation of stockpiled ammunition responsible.
On Tuesday afternoon, a Russian air force Il-76 airlifter was driving down the runway at Saki air base in Russian-occupied Crimea when something—or multiple somethings—exploded hundreds of yards behind it.
The enormous installation, which houses the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s 43rd Independent Naval Attack Aviation Regiment and other troops, was shaken by up to a dozen explosions.
Fireballs rained down from the sky, creating a cloud of black smoke and scaring visitors relaxing on adjacent beaches.
Witnesses reported hearing at least 12 explosions at about 3:20 pm local time (1220 GMT) from the Saky air base near Novofedorivka on the peninsula’s west coast, which Russia captured from Ukraine in 2014 and used as a launchpad for its invasion in February.
Blasts hit the Russian airbase near beach resorts in the seized Crimean peninsula, killing one person.
The Kremlin said the blasts were an accident. However, the near-simultaneous blasts throughout the airstrip suggested otherwise.
It was unmistakably a Ukrainian strike. However, it is unknown how the Ukrainians reached this significant Russian plant, 120 kilometres from the combat lines.
The Russian defence ministry insisted that the explosion was caused by the “detonation of multiple aviation ammunition stockpiles” and initially claimed that no one had been injured. It said that there had been no attacks and that no aircraft equipment had been destroyed.
When asked if Ukraine was to blame for the explosions, presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak told the Dozhd online television channel: “Obviously not. What does this have to do with us?” If Ukraine admits to attacking land that Russia considers its own, Moscow may accuse Kyiv of breaching a red line.
Podolak, who advises President Volodymyr Zelensky, indicated the incident might have been caused by Russian negligence or a political strike.
According to Russian news agencies, an anonymous ministry official stated that “just a breach of fire safety rules is deemed the major cause of the explosion of many munitions depots at the Saky airfield.”
In an evening video address, Zelenskiy did not directly reference the explosives, but he did say it was appropriate that people were concentrating on Crimea.
“The Black Sea area cannot be safe while Crimea is occupied,” he added, repeating Kiev’s stance that Crimea must be restored to Ukraine.
Earlier, Ukraine’s defence ministry published a statement in a very suggestive tone, reminiscent of its response to unexplained explosives on Russian soil, saying it “draws attention to fire safety standards once again.”
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian governor of Crimea, said a five-kilometre (three-mile) exclusion zone had been formed around the air station, which is near the beach towns of Novofedorivka and Saky.
In the five months since Russia escalated its assault on Ukraine, Ukrainian forces have deployed more and better deep-strike capabilities.
The Russians are vulnerable even a hundred kilometres from the front. According to commercial satellite photography, the Saki facility right before the attack contained roughly a dozen Su-24 bombers and Su-30 fighters, as well as Mi-8 helicopters and the Il-76.
According to recordings and images of the damaged facility, at least one of the Su-24s, as well as many support vehicles and potentially one of the base’s ammunition depots, were destroyed in the Tuesday strike. It’s conceivable that the harm is far worse than the early data suggests.
The Tuesday raid is the latest escalation by Ukrainian forces, who are becoming increasingly competent at finding and attacking Russian locations, supply routes, and command posts—sometimes even within Russia itself. It also indicates that the Black Sea Fleet is deteriorating.
The Ukrainian navy has lost the fleet’s flagship, Moskva, as well as multiple support ships, amphibious vessels, patrol boats, and landing craft in five months of missile and drone attacks.
Last month, a Ukrainian drone targeted Crimea’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters during a ceremony commemorating Russia’s annual Navy Day celebration.
Novofedorivka and Saky are located about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Sevastopol, which is home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which Moscow leased from Kyiv for decades until capturing and annexing the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most other nations did not recognise.
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