- This content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine.
MOSCOW, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Explosions rocked a Russian air base near tourist centers on the annexed Crimean peninsula on Thursday, injuring five people according to local authorities in what Moscow blamed on detonations in stories of ammunition
Local witnesses told Reuters they heard at least 12 explosions at around 15:20 local time (1220 GMT) from the Saky air base near Novofedorivka on Crimea’s western coast. They described a final explosion about 30 minutes later as the strongest.
Crimea has so far been spared the heavy shelling and artillery fire that has taken place in other parts of eastern and southern Ukraine since February 24, when President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian armed forces entered Ukraine – including some based on the peninsula.
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Russia’s defense ministry said the “detonation of several aviation ammunition stores” had caused an explosion, Russian news agencies reported, but there were no injuries.
However, the head of Crimea’s health department said five people had been injured, including a child, according to state news agency TASS.
No comment was immediately available from Ukraine.
The Russian governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, posted a video on his Telegram channel from near the base.
“Ambulance crews are working at the scene … it’s too early to talk about casualties,” he said. “Among the civilian population, no one has been admitted to hospital for medical treatment.”
He said a five kilometer (three mile) exclusion zone had been set up around the site and local authorities were monitoring the fires.
The defense ministry said there had been no attack and no aviation equipment had been damaged. Moscow said further steps are being taken to establish the causes.
The base is near the tourist centers of Novofedorivka and Saky, but Russian tourism association ATOS said it did not appear to have been affected by the explosions. However, locals reported congestion on roads leading away from the coast.
Numerous videos taken from the beaches were posted on social media showing large plumes of smoke rising into the sky in the distance. The videos could not be verified immediately.
Novofedorivka and Saky are about 50 km (30 miles) north of the port of Sevastopol, home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which Moscow leased from Kyiv for decades before seizing and annexing the entire peninsula of Ukraine in 2014, in a move not recognized by most other countries.
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Reuters report; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Andrew Cawthorne
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