KYIV, Ukraine — Two drones hit a fuel depot in the Russian-occupied Crimea port city of Sevastopol and set off a massive fire early Saturday, a Russian official said, during the investigation. latest attack on a peninsula important to Moscow’s war effort.
A thick cloud of black smoke covered the sky above the port city, home to the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet.
The Crimean peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 and has been heavily fortified in the years since, is crucial to Moscow’s control of the occupied territories. stationed in southern and eastern Ukraine. It has increasingly becoming a target attack, although Ukraine often maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity about attacks there.
The Kremlin-appointed local governor, Mikhail Razvozhaev, urged local residents to remain calm as fire crews battled the blaze, which he said was caused by “enemy drones”. Ukrainian officials have not claimed responsibility for Saturday’s fire.
“The important thing is that no one was injured,” Mr. Razvozhaev told reporters at a press conference. “With the rest – we’ll figure it out.”
Crimea is an important background when President Vladimir V. Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago.
When Ukrainian officials say that the country is in the final stages of preparation for a counterattack to regain territory occupied by Russian forces, President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted that Kyiv need to regain control of Crimea to prevent future Moscow aggression.
He reiterated that view in an interview published by Finnish channel Yle on Saturday, saying that the more weapons the West can supply to Ukraine, the quicker the war will end.
“We want to save as many lives as possible, so the number of weapons is very important,” he said.
Part of Ukraine’s argument for demanding long-range missiles from its allies is that it wants to be able to strike deeper into the backs of Russian lines, including in Crimea. The Biden administration has so far staunchly opposed doing so, fearing it might provoke the Kremlin.
It remains unclear how Ukrainian forces were able to strike Russian targets in Crimea, but attacks have become increasingly daring.
In August, the explosion shook the Russian airbase in Saki. Ukraine claimed responsibility for the attack two months later, when Kyiv’s top commander, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, wrote that the army targeted several Crimean military sites, including air bases, in an attempt to weaken Russia’s military capabilities and make Moscow worry about the security of areas it considers out of reach. with Ukrainian weapons.
In October, an explosion caused serious damage the only bridge connecting Crimea with Russia, a profound embarrassment for the Kremlin. Since then, Ukraine is believed to be behind a number of attacks on Russian ships docked at the port in Sevastopol.
As Ukrainian forces prepared for the long-awaited counteroffensive, attacks on the peninsula, including attacks on railroads and other critical infrastructure, increased. .
At the same time, Russian forces are building up their defensive positions across the already heavily militarized peninsula. satellite image published by private companies in recent weeks reveal a growing network of trenches and other fortifications.
On Saturday, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence service said the fire at the fuel depot in Sevastopol was “God’s Punishment” for Uman, the city where a Russian missile attack a day before kill 23 people, including five children.
Spokesman Andriy Yusov said: “This punishment will be prolonged. “All residents of temporarily occupied Crimea should not be near military installations and facilities supplying the troops of the aggressor for the foreseeable future.”
He stated that more than 10 oil products storage tanks with a total capacity of 40,000 tons were destroyed in Saturday’s fire. However, Russia’s local government said the damage was less and the fire had been extinguished by the afternoon.
While Ukrainian officials cheer attacks on Crimea, the military often takes no credit for maintaining operational secrecy. Officials say Kiev doesn’t want Moscow to know what kind of long-range weapons it has, even as it engages in ambitious fundraising campaigns to expand its fleet of long-range and maritime drones .
On Saturday, smoke rising from a fire at an oil storage facility on Kazachya Bay could be seen from miles away. It was burning an area of about 10,000 square feet, Razvozhaev said, adding that the local area would not have to be evacuated and fuel supplies for drivers would not be affected.
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Russian shelling: In the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, shelling in the town of Bilozerka hit a hospital and several private homes, killing a 57-year-old woman at her home and wounding three others, the military authorities said. regional affairs said on Friday night.
Marc Santora reports from Kiev, Ukraine, and Victoria Kim from Seoul. Anatoly Kurmanaev Contribution report from Berlin.
