Moscow has denounced sabotage and Ukraine hinted at responsibility for new explosions at a military base in Russian-annexed Crimea that is an important supply line for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The blasts on Tuesday engulfed an ammunition depot at a military base in the north of the Crimean peninsula, disrupting trains and forcing the evacuation of 2000 people from a nearby village, according to Russian officials and news agencies.
Plumes of smoke were later seen at a second Russian military base in central Crimea, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper said, while blasts hit another facility in the west last week.
The explosions raised the prospect of new dynamics in the six-month-old war if Ukraine now has capability to strike deeper into Russian territory or pro-Kyiv groups are having success with guerrilla-style attacks.
Russia has used Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014, to reinforce its troops fighting in other parts of Ukraine with military hardware, a process Ukraine is keen to disrupt ahead of a potential counter-offensive in the south.
Crimea is the base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and also popular in the summer as a holiday resort.
Ukraine has not officially confirmed or denied responsibility for the explosions, though its officials have openly cheered incidents in territory that – until last week – appeared safe in Moscow’s grip beyond range of attack.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak and chief of staff Andriy Yermak both exulted on social media at “demilitarisation”: an apparent mocking reference to the word Russia uses to justify its invasion.
Russia’s defence ministry said the explosions at the ammunition depot were “a result of sabotage”.
With the war raging since February 24, attention has also focused in recent days on shelling in the vicinity of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactor complex, Europe’s largest, in a Russian-occupied area of southeastern Ukraine.
Russian-installed officials there, quoted by Interfax news agency, said on Tuesday Ukrainian forces shelled the city of Enerhodar where the plant is located. They accused Ukraine of doing so to provoke Russia into returning fire.
Later in the day, 20 Russian rockets and 10 artillery rounds hit the city of Nikopol on the Ukrainian government-controlled bank of the Dnipro river across from Enerhodar, the Ukrainian regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on Telegram.
He said four people were wounded.
Reuters could not immediately verify either side’s accounts.
Each side has blamed the other for heightened risks to the Zaporizhzhia plant, which Russia seized in March though Ukrainian technicians continue to operate it.
Meanwhile, Russia’s FSB security service accused Ukrainian “saboteurs” of repeatedly blowing up electricity pylons running from a nuclear power station in the Kursk region, some 90 kilometres north of the Ukraine border, disrupting plant operations.
Reuters could not substantiate the report. Ukraine’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Ukraine conflict has caused millions to flee, killed thousands and deepened a geopolitical rift between Moscow and the West.
Moscow calls its invasion a “special military operation” to demilitarise its neighbour and protect Russian-speaking communities.
Ukraine, which was part of the Russian-dominated Soviet Union until its 1991 break-up, accuses Moscow of waging an imperial-style war of conquest.
