Explosions refocus Ukraine war on Russian-annexed Crimea as Vladimir Putin lashes US
- An ammunition depot exploded in Crimea, the latest blasts to rock the peninsula occupied by Russian forces
- Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of seeking to prolong the conflict in Ukraine
The world’s attention on Russia’s war in Ukraine on Tuesday turned anew to the Russia-annexed occupied Crimean Peninsula, where a mysterious ammunition storage fire and explosions was the second incident in a week to shake Moscow’s sensitivities.
The Russian Defence Ministry said there were no serious casualties from the blasts in the northern Crimean village of Mayskoye, state-owned news agency RIA reported, though two people were injured. The agency also reported a fire at a transformer substation 20km away.
The ministry said a fire erupted at a “site for temporary storage of ammunition of one of the military units”.
“As a result of the fire, the stored ammunition detonated,” the ministry said, adding that it wasn’t immediately clear what caused the fire.
The Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea, which Russia seized and annexed from Ukraine in 2014 in a move not recognised by most countries, is the base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and popular in the summer as a holiday resort.