Powerful explosions rocked a Russian air base in Crimea and sent plumes of smoke billowing over the landscape on Tuesday, in what may signal an escalation of the war in Ukraine. At least one person was killed and several others were injured, authorities said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry denied that the Saki base on the Black Sea had been bombed, saying instead that munitions had exploded there. But Ukrainian social media was abuzz with speculation that it had been hit by long-range missiles fired from Ukraine.
Videos posted on social media showed bathers fleeing a nearby beach as huge flames and plumes of smoke rose across the horizon from multiple points, accompanied by loud booms. Crimea Today News told Telegram that witnesses reported a fire on a runway and damage to nearby houses as a result of what it said were dozens of explosions.
People rest on a beach as smoke and flames rise after explosions at the Russian military airbase in Novofedorivka. (Contractor/Reuters)
Russian state news agency Tass quoted an unnamed ministry source as saying the main cause of the explosions appeared to be a “violation of fire safety requirements”. The ministry said no warplanes were damaged.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine sarcastically said on Facebook: “The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine cannot establish the cause of the fire, but once again reminds of the rules of fire safety and the prohibition of smoking in non-smoking places specified”.
During the war, Russia has reported numerous fires and explosions at ammunition storage sites on its territory near the border with Ukraine, blaming some of them on Ukrainian attacks. Ukrainian authorities have remained mostly nonchalant about the incidents, maintaining an ambiguous stance.
If Ukrainian forces were indeed responsible for the blasts, it would mark the first known major attack on a Russian military post on the Crimean peninsula, which the Kremlin annexed in 2014. A smaller explosion last month at the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea. The fleet in the Crimean port of Sevastopol was blamed on Ukrainian saboteurs using an improvised drone.
Russian warplanes have used the Saki base to attack areas in southern Ukraine at short notice.
Crimean regional leader Sergei Aksyonov said ambulances and medical helicopters were sent to the base and the area was cordoned off within a five kilometer radius.
One person was killed, according to Aksyonov. Crimean health authorities said six people were injured, one of whom remained hospitalized. Others were treated for cuts from shards of glass and released.
Moscow officials have long warned Ukraine that any attack on Crimea would trigger massive retaliation, including strikes on “decision-making centers” in Kyiv.
Local witnesses said they heard at least 12 explosions around 3:20 p.m. local time from the airbase near Novofedorivka. (Contractor/Reuters)
Attack on a city near the nuclear power plant
Earlier Tuesday, Ukrainian officials reported that at least three Ukrainian civilians were killed and 23 wounded by Russian shelling in 24 hours, including an attack not far from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The Russians fired more than 120 rockets at the city of Nikopol, across the Dnieper River from the plant, Dnipropetrovsk Governor Valentyn Reznichenko said. Several apartment buildings and industrial areas were damaged, he said.
Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of bombing the power station, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, fueling international fears of a catastrophe.
In his late-night video speech on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invoked the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. He called for new sanctions against Russia, accusing it of risking another nuclear disaster.
“We are actively informing the world about Russian nuclear blackmail,” he said.
An official stationed by Russia in the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region said an air defense system at the plant would be strengthened after last week’s shelling. Evgeny Balitsky, head of the Kremlin-backed administration, told Russian state television that power lines and other damaged parts of the plant had been restored.
“The plant is operating normally but, of course, with an increased degree of security,” Balitsky said.
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‘Very high’ risks at power plant: Ukraine’s nuclear chief
The head of Ukraine’s state nuclear firm warned on Tuesday of the “very high” risks of bombings at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the Russian-occupied south, saying it was vital that Kyiv regain control of the facility. lation in time for winter.
Energoatom chief Petro Kotin told Reuters in an interview that Russian airstrikes last week had damaged three lines connecting the Zaporizhzhia plant to the Ukrainian grid and that Russia wanted to connect the facility to its net.
Some of the bombs landed near the spent fuel storage facility, an area that has 174 containers of highly radioactive material, said Kotin, who warned of the danger of being hit.
“This is … the most radioactive material in the whole nuclear plant. That (would mean) the distribution (of it) around this place and then we will have like a cloud of radiation and then time will decide … which direction the cloud is going,” he said.
Kotin said Russia wanted to connect the plant to its grid, a technically difficult process that requires separating the facility from the Ukrainian system before it can be gradually connected to the Russian one.
“Their plan is to damage all the lines of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. After that it will not be connected to the Ukrainian power system,” he said.
The nuclear plant has six reactors and produced 20 to 21 percent of Ukraine’s electricity needs before the war, he said. It urgently needs reforms that have yet to be carried out, he added.
“For the winter season, we urgently need to get these Russians out of there and then renew the infrastructure,” he said.
About 500 Russian soldiers are currently at the facility in heavy vehicles and the plant is being used as a base, he said.
Kotin said the best solution would be for Russian troops to withdraw and for the plant to return to Ukrainian control. Peacekeepers could be sent to guard the facility, he said.
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