More than 2,000 residents of four Crimean settlements will be evacuated after strong explosions rocked a military training ground in the annexed Black Sea peninsula, causing a fire and forcing the closure of a major highway.
The Kremlin-installed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, made the announcement on Telegram after blasts were reported in the peninsula’s Kirovske district on Wednesday by Ukrainian media and Russian Telegram channels linked to Russian security services. Aksyonov didn’t elaborate on the cause of the fire but said the Tavrida highway would be closed.
The Tavrida highway connects the Crimean Bridge in the east of the peninsula with Sevastopol in the south.
It comes two days after an attack on the Kerch Strait bridge, which damaged a key supply route for Russia’s forces. The road and rail bridge, built after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, was previously damaged in an explosion in October 2022.
According to the Russian news Telegram channel Mash, the blaze broke out at an ammunition depot. It said that local residents within a 5-kilometer radius of the fire had been hearing explosions for two hours early on Wednesday.
RBC Ukraine, a Ukrainian news outlet, said an ammunition depot was “hit” and that “detonation continues,” citing the Crimean Wind Telegram channel.
Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odesa military administration in Ukraine, published two clips of a fire, writing: “Enemy ammunition depot. Staryi Krym,” referring to a town in the Kirovske district.
Local Telegram channels reported that there are multiple casualties at the military training ground in Staryi Krym.
Newsweek has been unable to independently verify the reports and has contacted the foreign ministries of Russia and Ukraine via email for comment.
Aksyonov said that there have been no reported injuries, and announced that an “operational headquarters” has been created to resolve the situation. The Krinichki, Aivazovskoye, Abrikosovka and Privetnoye settlements will be temporarily evacuated, he said.
Attacks on the Kerch bridge on Monday morning, which Russia blamed on Ukraine, caused part of the structure to collapse. Thousand of residents and tourists fled the peninsula hours after the incident.
Several Ukrainian media outlets, including Ukrainska Pravdacited an unnamed source in Ukraine’s Security Service as saying that the attack on the Crimean bridge was a special operation by the Security Service of Ukraine and naval forces.
Ukraine’s minister for digital transformation said that the bridge was struck by “naval drones.”
“Today the Crimean bridge was blown up by naval drones,” Mykhailo Fedorov said on Telegram. “It is better to act, not to reveal photos of our own production facilities and to supply the defense forces.”
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