MOSCOW: An ammunition depot in Russian-occupied Crimea exploded on Tuesday, wounding two people and disrupting rail traffic between the peninsula and the rest of southern Ukraine and Russia, the region’s top Russian-backed official said. Told.
Footage on Russian state TV caught fire at a power substation near the Crimea town of Dzhankoi and repeated a series of major explosions on the horizon, which officials said were caused by an ammunition explosion at a military base.
Sergei Aksyonov, the top Russian official in Crimea, told state TV he did not want to talk about what might have caused the explosions, which he said was being looked into.
He said about 2,000 locals were evacuated from the nearest village beyond a 5 km (3.1 mi) radius.
Russia has used Crimea to fortify its troops in what it calls a “special military operation” with military hardware in Ukraine. Reports of damage to the peninsula’s rail network on Tuesday could disrupt that process.
Russia’s RIA news agency said seven passenger trains were running late and rail traffic was suspended on part of the line in northern Crimea. Aksyonov said that a bus service would be provided to allow people to continue their journey.
The incident follows a series of explosions at a Russian-run airport in Crimea last week, which Ukrainian officials indicated was part of some kind of special operation, but Moscow said it was an accident.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of prosecuting an imperialist-style war as the reason for the invasion. He has said his armed forces are determined to liberate territory seized by Russian troops since February 24 and have called for annexation of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014 after an unrecognized referendum by the West. had done
Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolik published a cryptic tweet on Tuesday indicating a possible involvement of Ukraine in Tuesday’s blasts, but declined to confirm such a role.
“(The) morning began with explosions near Dzhankoi,” Podolik wrote.
“A reminder: Crimea (as a) normal country is about the Black Sea, mountains, recreation and tourism, but the Crimea occupied by the Russians is about warehouse explosions and the high risk of death for invaders and thieves Demilitarization in Action.”
Russia cites the demilitarization of Ukraine as one of its main objectives, something it says is necessary to ensure its security in the face of what has been cast as uncontrolled expansion by the Western NATO military alliance. .
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