Ukr. eyed as explosions rock Crimea

An ammunition depot in Russian-occupied Crimea exploded on Tuesday in an assumed Ukrainian attack — the second in just over a week on the contested peninsula.

Videos circulating on social media showed columns of smoke rising from a blaze near the village of Mayskoye in the northern part of Crimea. According to Russian state TV, a nearby electrical station also caught fire, wreaking havoc on local rail traffic.

Russians blamed the explosion — which forced the evacuation of some 3,000 people — on an act of sabotage, but didn’t explicitly accuse Ukraine of carrying it out.

An additional blast was reported by Russian business newspaper Kommersant, which quoted locals saying they saw plumes of smoke over a Russian air base in Gvardeyskoye, Crimea.

The apparent attack comes eight days after explosions rocked a Russian airfield in the Saki district of Crimea, destroying multiple attack aircraft and leaving craters visible in satellite photos.

Russian authorities denied any airplanes were destroyed and blamed the massive explosions on an accident at an ammunition depot.

Ukraine has been coy about the strikes, with no official confirmation or denial.

A senior Ukrainian military official told The New York Times last week that the air base explosions were part of an attack involving Ukrainian partisan fighters and “a device exclusively of Ukrainian manufacture,” but gave no further information.

On Tuesday, commenting on the most recent reports of explosions, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak hinted at more to come.

“I certainly agree with the Russian ministry for defense, which is predicting more incidents of this kind in the next two, three months,” Podolyak told the British newspaper The Guardian.