EXPLOSIONS ROCK RUSSIAN BASE IN CRIMEA
A series of explosions rocked a key Russian air base in Kremlin-occupied Crimea on Tuesday, killing at least one person and sowing confusion among local officials about the cause and whether Ukraine’s military could threaten targets on the peninsula.
Publicly, Ukrainian officials would not confirm the involvement of Ukraine’s military, as Russian and occupation officials scrambled to determine the source of the blasts, raising the terrorist threat level in the area. But a senior Ukrainian military official with knowledge of the situation said that Ukrainian forces were responsible, having carried out an attack on the Saki air base on the western coast of Crimea.
Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters, the official said the air base was one from which planes regularly took off for attacks on Ukrainian forces. The official would not disclose what type of weapon caused the explosions, saying only that “a device exclusively of Ukrainian manufacture was used.”
A Ukrainian attack on Russian forces in the Crimean Peninsula would represent a significant expansion of Ukraine’s offensive efforts, which had mostly been confined to pushing Russian troops from territories occupied after Feb. 24, when the invasion began. For weeks, however, Ukraine has been shifting troops and striking deeper behind the front lines than before as it signals that it is preparing a major counteroffensive in the Kherson region and uses longerrange weapons supplied by the West.
Crimea, shielded by the Russian navy and heavily fortified after eight years in Russian control, has largely been spared the violence.
Last month, a small explosive device delivered by drone blew up at the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, injuring six but causing little damage.
Russia blamed Ukrainian forces for the attack, but Ukrainian officials vociferously denied it.
Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.