Rolling explosions at reported Russian ammunition dump in Crimea force thousands to evacuate
Explosions at a reported Russian ammunition dump in occupied Crimea have forced thousands of people to evacuate and prompted leaders there to redirect traffic away from a local highway.
Videos on social media show cascading explosions at the site near Stary Krym in Crimea’s Kirorvsky district.
The Russia-backed leader of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, said on Telegram that “a fire occurred at a military training ground.”
The original cause of the fire is not known. The well-known Grey Zone Telegram channel suggested that a Ukrainian Storm Shadow missile was responsible for the strike, but there is no official corrobration of that claim. An insurgent Ukrainian group in Crimea, Atesh, celebrated the fire but said that it was not responsible.
The Rybar Telegram channel said that the first explosions were heard in the 4 a.m. local time (Tuesday 9 p.m. ET).
Explosions continue to be heard six hours after the original reported explosions, a correspondent for Russian state media TASS reported. The head of Crimea’s parliament said that it could take two days to fully extinguish the blaze, according to Russian state media.
Both the Grey Zone Telegram and Atesh referred to the site as an ammunition dump. That claim is supported by the cascading explosions that can be seen in the social media videos.
Askenov said that residents of four surrounding villages – more than 2,000 people – were being evacuated.
