Fireball erupts at ammunition depot in Crimea days after explosions destroyed Putin’s warplanes

An ammunition depot has exploded in Crimea just days after a series of explosions destroyed at least seven Russian warplanes at a nearby air force base.

Video purportedly shows a huge fireball explosion at a temporary military storage facility in the village of Mayskoye near the city of Dzhankoi in northern Crimea.

The Russian-appointed administrative leader of Mayskoye, Sergei Aksyonov, said two people had been injured in the blast after ammunition exploded at the depot.

Earlier on Tuesday morning, a transformer substation near the town of Dzhankoi, 14 miles away from the ammunition depot, caught fire according to Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency.

It is not yet clear what caused the blasts but it will raise suspicions of it being another Ukrainian sabotage attack in the Putin-annexed peninsula. 

The explosions come just days after a series of devastating blasts destroyed at least seven Russian warplanes and demolished ammunition storage facilities at the Saki air force base in Crimea in an attack conducted by Ukraine’s special forces, according to a Ukrainian official.

Russia’s Defence Ministry today said there were no ‘serious’ casualties after the fire broke out at a temporary storage area of the ammunition depot. 

Moscow said that the fire had erupted at the depot at around 6.15am local time (03.15 GMT), causing ammunition to detonate. 

Some 2,000 residents were evacuated from the area as footage appeared to show a series of explosions at the ammunition depot, with clouds of black smoke billowing into the air. 

Aksyonov said he had left for Mayskoye immediately after the first blasts and said he was investigating the circumstances surrounding the explosions. 

Crimea, which has been under Russian control since 2014 even as most of the world recognises it as Ukrainian territory, has been a major staging post for the military campaign Russia launched in Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Ukraine has not officially confirmed or denied responsibility for reported explosions in Crimea in recent days.

‘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 Tuesday’s explosions.

The Russian reports did not say how many blasts occurred in total.

The explosion marks yet another embarrassing loss for Russian President Vladimir Putin as it comes just days after a series of blasts ravaged the Saki air force base in Crimea. 

At least seven Russian fighter jets were destroyed and ammunition storage facilities were destroyed in the explosions on August 9.

Russia denied any aircraft were damaged in last week’s blasts – or that any attack took place. But photos of the Saki base in Crimea published by US-based satellite imaging company Planet Labs PBC clearly showed at least seven fighter planes had been obliterated in what is widely thought to have been a Ukrainian strike.

The explosions, which killed one person and wounded 14, sent tourists fleeing in panic from a nearby beach as plumes of smoke snaked along the coastline. 

Ukrainian officials stopped short of publicly claiming responsibility for the explosions, but said at least nine planes had been destroyed and mocked Russia’s explanation that a careless smoker might have caused ammunition at the Saki air base to catch fire and blow up. 

If Ukrainian forces were, in fact, responsible for the blasts, it would be the first known major attack on a Russian military site on the Crimean Peninsula, which the Kremlin annexed from Ukraine in 2014. 

Russian warplanes have launched untold numbers of strikes on Ukraine’s southeastern regions from the Saki airbase.

Planet Labs’ photographs, taken roughly 24 hours after the explosions at the Saki base in Crimea showed roughly one square mile of grassland burned to a crisp. 

Several craters marked the ground near the tarmac – typically the sign of a powerful explosion – and the smouldering wreckage of several jets are clearly visible.

The two runways meanwhile bore no apparent damage and appeared to still be operational, while some of the fighter jets on the flight line had been moved farther down the runway and had seemingly escaped the explosions.

The base has been home to the Russian 43rd Independent Naval Assault Air Squadron since Moscow seized Crimea.

The squadron flies Sukhoi Su-24s and Sukhoi Su-30s and has been instrumental in delivering air support and strikes across southeastern Ukraine.

Crimea holds huge strategic and symbolic significance for both sides. 

The Kremlin demands that Ukraine recognises Crimea as part of Russia as a key condition of any potential ceasefire agreement. 

Ukraine has vowed to drive the Russians from the peninsula, with president Volodymyr Zelensky declaring earlier this week: ‘Crimea is Ukrainian, and we will never give it up… The Russian war against Ukraine and the whole of free Europe must end with Crimea and its liberation.’

This is a breaking news story, more to follow…