Aircraft of the Russian Black Sea Fleet are stationed at the Saki military airport. There is also a popular Crimean seaside resort nearby. Tourists flee from there after several explosions rock the annexed peninsula. Moscow denies hostile fire. Observers suspect sabotage.
According to local and Moscow sources, an ammunition depot at an air force base on the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Russia, has exploded. Videos circulating on social networks also show explosions and large clouds of smoke, which are said to have been recorded near the town of Nowofyodorovka, not far from the seaside resort of Feodosiya. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that there were no casualties. Tourists fled the area.
The Saki military airport is located north of Sevastopol and about 200 kilometers from the front in the western part of the peninsula. The base is home to the 43rd Naval Attack Regiment of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Russian news agencies quoted the Russian army as saying that various ammunition had exploded. The ammunition depot was neither shot at nor bombed. Viktoria Kazmirova, deputy head of local government, told the TASS news agency that all the windows were broken.
First, Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to the Moscow-appointed governor of Crimea, reported "several explosions" in the area on Telegram. Crimea chief Sergey Aksyonov then announced that an area within a radius of five kilometers around the base would be cordoned off. He did not comment on the cause of the explosion.
In recent weeks, the Ukrainian military has used multiple rocket launchers from the United States to destroy several Russian ammunition dumps in the southern Kherson region near Crimea. However, observers assume that the latest explosions were an act of sabotage, since the Ukrainian troops are more than 200 kilometers away. According to previous reports, the Ukrainian army does not currently have missiles with this range.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Internationally, the peninsula, with a population of over two million, continues to be regarded as Ukrainian territory.
