Sabotage blamed for Crimea blast

August 17, 2022 12:00 am | Updated 05:38 am IST - Moscow

Military storage facility was damaged

Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Tuesday that a fire that set off explosions at a munitions depot in Moscow-annexed Crimea was caused by an act of “sabotage”.

“On the morning of August 16, as a result of an act of sabotage, a military storage facility near the village of Dzhankoi was damaged,” the Ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.

“Damage was caused to a number of civilian facilities, including power lines, a power plant, a railway track as well as a number of residential buildings. There were no serious injuries,” it added. In an earlier statement, the Ministry said a fire erupted around 6:15 a.m. local time at a temporary military storage site near the village of Mayskoye in the Dzhankoi district, causing ammunition to detonate. Images posted on social media showed huge fireballs erupting at the site and clouds of black smoke billowing into the air.

On August 9, Moscow said ammunition had detonated at a military airfield in Crimea, killing one person and wounding several more. It indicated that the airfield was not targeted by Ukrainian forces but experts said satellite imagery pointed to a likely attack.

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