Explosions refocus war in Ukraine on Russian-annexed Crimea

KYIV: The world’s attention on the war in Ukraine on Tuesday turned anew to Russia-annexed Crimea, where two separate fires, including one with massive explosions, injured at least two people and forced the evacuation of around 2,000 residents.

The second incident in a week in Crimea raised increasing questions about whether Ukrainian forces managed to hit the peninsula. Videos posted on social media showed thick plumes of smoke rising over the raging flames, and a series of multiple explosions could be heard in the background.

“Crimea occupied by Russians is about warehouses explosions and high risk of death for invaders and thieves,” said a cryptic Twitter message from Ukraine presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, which stopped short of claiming any Ukraine responsibility for the incident.

The blaze and blasts rattled the village of Mayskoye in the Dzhankoi district of Crimea early Tuesday, Russian media also reported.

Another morning incident was reported in Dzhankoi itself -- according to Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti, a transformer substation was on fire after “a loud thump sound.” Russia’s Energy Ministry reported shortly after that the fire at the substation was contained.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the fire at the substation and the fire at the ammunition storage site were connected.

Kyiv certainly reinforced a message of chaos.

“Morning near Dzhankoi began with explosions. A reminder: Crimea of normal country is about the Black Sea, mountains, recreation and tourism,” Podolyak wrote, referring to the time before Russia invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014.

The Russian Defense Ministry said a fire erupted at a “site for temporary storage of ammunition of one of the military units.”

“As a result of the fire, the stored ammunition detonated,” the ministry said, adding that it wasn’t immediately clear what caused the fire.

The Dzhankoi district of Crimea is in the north of the peninsula, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Russian-controlled region of Kherson in southern Ukraine. Kyiv has recently mounted a series of attacks on various sites in the region, targeting supply routes for the Russian military there and ammunition depots.

Crimea’s Russian-appointed governor Sergei Aksyonov said that two people sustained injuries in the most recent incident, and that local residents were being evacuated from the area, as explosions of ammunition continued.

Aksyonov said some residential buildings were damaged near the site of the fire, and about 2,000 people were evacuated from nearby areas. According to Russian media, railway lines going through Mayskoye were also damaged.

Aksyonov said all trains will be stopped at the town of Vladislavovka, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Mayskoye, and passengers will be able to continue their journeys on buses.

Last week, a series of explosions occurred at the Saki air base near the Novofyodorovka village in Crimea. The Russian military blamed the blasts on an accidental detonation of munitions there, but the incident appeared to be the result of a Ukrainian attack. Kyiv said the explosions destroyed nine Russian airplanes.

Ukrainian officials at the time stopped short of publicly claiming responsibility for the explosions, while mocking Russia’s explanation that a careless smoker might have caused ammunition at the Saki air base to catch fire and blow up. Analysts also said that explanation doesn’t make sense and that the Ukrainians could have used anti-ship missiles to strike the base.

The Crimean Peninsula holds huge strategic and symbolic significance for both sides. The Kremlin’s demand that Ukraine recognize Crimea as part of Russia has been one of its key conditions for ending the fighting, while Ukraine has vowed to drive the Russians from the peninsula and all other occupied territories.

And a British Defense Ministry intelligence update claimed that in the waters off Crimea Russia’s Black Sea Fleet surface vessels “continue to pursue an extremely defensive posture,” with boats barely venturing out of sight of the coastline.

Russia already lost its flagship Moskva in the Black Sea and last month the Ukrainian military retook the strategic Snake Island outpost off Ukraine’s southwestern coast vital for guaranteeing sea lanes out of Odesa, Ukraine’s biggest port.

The Russian fleet’s “limited effectiveness undermines Russia’s overall invasion strategy,” the British statement said. “This means Ukraine can divert resources to press Russian ground forces elsewhere.”

The Ukrainian governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, reported Tuesday that one civilian was killed in the region in the most recent Russian shelling, and two others sustained wounds.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, one civilian was killed and nine others were wounded by Russian shelling, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said. He added that the overnight attack on the city was “one of the most massive shelling of Kharkiv in recent days.”

Officials in the central region of Dniprotpetrovsk also reported shelling of the Nikopol and the Kryvyi Rih districts.