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The Russian Defense Ministry reported a series of explosions at a military airfield on the annexed Crimean peninsula. According to the authorities, it was an accident and not a military attack by Ukraine, as had initially been thought. Although six injuries and one death were reported first, the number of people affected rose to 13 after the detonations.
This Tuesday, August 9 in the afternoon (local time), photos and videos began to spread through social networks where large columns of smoke were seen in the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed to Russia in 2014. The Ministry of Russian Defense reported that it was a series of accidental detentions of ammunition stored at an airfield.
“On the territory of the Saki airfield, in the vicinity of the town of Novofiodorofka, the detonation of several munitions took place in a protected storage area,” the ministry said in a statement.
According to reports from the Minister of Public Health of Crimea, Konstantin Skorupski, “five wounded were transferred to the regional hospital, one of them a minor.” Later the same entity reported that the number of injured rose to six and the death of a civilian was reported.
This August 10, the health authorities reported that the number of injured increased to 13, although most of them have already been discharged.
The Russian governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksionov, went to the place where around 12 explosions were registered and pointed out that they took all the necessary measures in a 5-kilometer radius to protect the safety of the population and the infrastructure.
Since the war in Ukraine began on February 24, Russia has reported numerous fires and explosions at ammunition storage sites on its territory near the Ukrainian border.
The Kremlin Defense Ministry assured that neither the airfield facilities nor the air equipment were affected after the ammunition explosions.
The explosions could be used as an excuse by Russia to attack Ukraine
In videos posted on social media, horrified beachgoers were seen fleeing from the blasts. The blasts occurred very close to seaside resorts on the Crimean peninsula, a place where many Russians spend their summer vacations.
Initially, the Ukrainian social networks spread the rumor that the explosions in Crimea had been a long-range attack ordered from kyiv, increasing fears of a new attack on Ukraine for allegedly having crossed the red line of attacking territory controlled by Ukraine. Russia.
Previously, on July 31, a Crimean official had accused Ukraine of being behind a drone attack in Sevastopol, where five people were injured.
Russia annexed this territory from Ukraine in 2014, and in February of this year used it as a launching pad to invade its neighboring country.
The partially recognized republic of Crimea has been spared the heavy shelling and shelling that other areas to the east and south of Ukraine have suffered since Russian forces began their invasion.
The Ukrainian government spoke through its Ministry of Defense in the face of the facts, saying that they could not determine the cause of the explosions and called for attention to comply with fire safety regulations and the prohibition of smoking in non-certified places.
The military base where the accident took place is located about 50 kilometers north of the port of Sevastopol, headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which Moscow rented from kyiv for decades before taking over the place and annexing the entire peninsula. to his nation.
For the past few weeks, Ukrainian troops have been staging counter-attacks in Russian-occupied areas as they try to contain their enemy’s forces in the industrial Donbass region.
On Tuesday, the US State Department approved $89 million in aid to help Ukraine equip and train teams to clear landmines and unexploded ordnance.
The announcement comes just one day after the US government announced $1 billion in arms aid to Ukraine.
However, the UN has said that around 4.3 billion dollars of humanitarian aid is needed for the Ukrainians, a number that could increase with the arrival of winter.
For its part, the United States Department of Defense estimated through its intelligence that between 70 and 80 thousand Russian soldiers have died since the war began 5 months ago.
With Reuters and EFE
