More explosions rock Russian-controlled Crimea

KYIV, Aug 16 (Reuters) – Explosions shook an ammunition depot in Russian-annexed Crimea on Tuesday, the most recent such incident in a area utilized by Moscow as a staging put up for its struggle in Ukraine.

The Russian Defence Ministry stated there have been no severe casualties from the blasts within the northern Crimean village of Mayskoye, state-owned information company RIA reported. The company additionally reported a hearth at a transformer substation 20 km away.

The Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea, which Russia seized and annexed from Ukraine in 2014 in a transfer not recognised by most international locations, is the bottom of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and common in the summertime as a vacation resort.

Last week, blasts at a army air base within the metropolis of Novofedorivka, on Crimea’s western coast, brought about intensive injury and destroyed a number of Russian struggle planes. Moscow referred to as that an accident, although simultaneous blasts at a number of components of the bottom had left craters seen from area.

Ukraine has not formally confirmed or denied accountability for explosions in Crimea, although its officers have overtly cheered incidents in territory that, till final week, appeared secure in Moscow’s grip past vary of assault.

“A reminder: Crimea of normal country is about the Black Sea, mountains, recreation and tourism, but Crimea occupied by Russians is about warehouses explosions and high risk of death for invaders and thieves,” Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted after the studies from Mayskoye.

Kyiv goals to disrupt Russian provide strains forward of a deliberate Ukrainian counter-attack. Mayskoye is on the principle railway line linking Crimea with Russia, and used to produce Russian forces in southern Ukraine.

Like the air base, it’s out of the vary of the principle rockets Western international locations acknowledge offering Ukraine to this point, suggesting that if the explosions had been some type of assault, Kyiv has acquired functionality to strike deeper into Russian territory.

With the struggle raging since Feb. 24, consideration has additionally centered in latest days on shelling within the neighborhood of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine. Both sides have blamed one another for dangers to Europe’s largest nuclear facility, which Russia has seized although Ukrainian technicians function it.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Russia of utilizing the positioning as a defend for assaults and risking a nuclear disaster. He needs new sanctions on Moscow’s nuclear sector.

Russian officers say it’s their enemies who’re shelling.

Reuters couldn’t instantly confirm battlefield studies.

AID LEAVES FOR AFRICA

The almost six-month battle has brought about hundreds of thousands to flee, killed hundreds, and deepened a geopolitical rift between Moscow and the West.

Russia calls its invasion a “special military operation” to demilitarise its neighbour, shield Russian-speaking communities and push again in opposition to the NATO army alliance’s enlargement.

Ukraine and Western backers accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of waging an imperial-style struggle of conquest.

Putin accused the United States of attempting to “drag out” battle in Ukraine by supporting the Zelenskiy authorities. Washington additionally needed to increase a “NATO-like system” into the Asia-Pacific area after “a thoroughly planned provocation” with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s go to to Chinese-claimed Taiwan this month, Putin advised a convention.

Even as the most important assault on a European state since 1945 floor on, there was progress on a grain deal to ease a worldwide meals disaster created by the battle.

The ship Brave Commander left the Ukrainian port of Pivdennyi, carrying the primary cargo of humanitarian meals help certain for Africa from Ukraine since Russia’s invasion.

Ukraine’s grain exports have slumped due to the closure of its Black Sea ports, driving up world meals costs and sparking fears of shortages in Africa and the Middle East. learn extra

On the battlefield, the perimeters reported no main modifications to positions.

Ukraine reported continued Russian shelling and rocket assaults within the Donbas japanese space, and success in repelling tried Russian advances close to the Lysychansk oil refinery within the Luhansk area of the Donbas.

Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Lincoln Feast and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Peter Graff

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.