Ukraine war: Russia faults damage for new Crimea impacts

Ukraine war: Russia faults damage for new Crimea impacts

WATCH: Explosions seen at an arms terminal in Maiske in Crimea

Seven days after an obvious Ukrainian assault on a Russian army installation in involved Crimea, an arms store on one more stop has been hit by a progression of blasts.

Russian authorities said a fire set off the impacts in the Dzhankoi region - before later accusing "damage".

A different fire broke out at power substation and a rail line was harmed.

A series of impacts last week obliterated Russian warplanes at a Black Sea base on the Crimean coast.

Ukraine has never openly conceded that assault - however official office counselor Mykhailo Podolyak portrayed the most recent occurrence as "disarmament in real life", it were not unintentional to show that the blasts.

A Crimean Tatar pioneer, Refat Chubarov, considered the blasts a 

"hit" that could be heard "far across the steppe".

Russia's guard service said the fire broke out at a brief ammo stockpiling site close to the town of Maiske (or Mayskoye in Russian) at around 06:15 Moscow time (03:15 GMT) and that the reason was being explored.

The safeguard service in Moscow said there had been no "serious" setbacks, yet Russian-designated provincial head Sergei Aksyonov visited the site and said 2,000 individuals had been moved from a close by town and two individuals had been injured.

"One man has a shrapnel wound, and one was squashed by a wall. Their lives are not in harm's way, luckily," 

he said.

 not in danger, fortunately," he said.

Map of Crimea
1px transparent line

Crimea was seized from Ukraine and then annexed by Russia in early 2014, and when Russian forces unleashed a new invasion in February they used their bases on the peninsula to capture large swathes of southern Ukraine.

Russian occupation has stretched across two southern regions in particular, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, and Ukraine has vowed to launch a counter-offensive to recapture areas under Russian control.

After the Russian air base at Saky was hit last Tuesday, satellite images revealed significant damage, with at least eight warplanes destroyed. Although Russia said that incident was also accidental, there was little doubt the base had come under Ukrainian attack due to the precise nature of the destruction.

The UK Ministry of Defence said the blasts had 


"significantly degraded" 


the aviation capability of the Russian navy's Black Sea fleet.

The latest blasts at an ammunition depot are reminiscent of a string of recent attacks behind Russian lines in eastern Ukraine.

Since June, Ukrainian forces have used US Himars multiple rocket launchers to hit as many as 50 arms stores, according to the defence minister. Bridges in the south have also been hit, jeopardising vital supply lines from Crimea to Kherson.

The apparent ability of Ukraine's military to reach so far behind enemy lines is of significant embarrassment to the Russians. The explosions at Saky were visible from nearby beaches and videos posted afterwards on social media showed streams of tourists leaving Crimea, across a bridge built across the Kerch Strait after the Russian annexation.

Media caption,

Watch: Crimea beachgoers run after airfield explosion

 

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