Explosions that left one dead and injured occurred on Tuesday at an ammunition depot on the site of a military airfield on Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia, which has stopped oil deliveries via Ukraine.
The Russian army claimed that no shooting or bombardment had been the cause of these explosions, first reported by the authorities of this peninsula unilaterally attached to Russia in 2014 and on the front line in the Russian offensive against Ukraine launched on February 24.
“Several aviation munitions exploded in a depot located on the territory of the Saki military airfield, near the town of Novofyodorovka,” the Russian army said in a statement.
Crimean leader Sergey Aksionov said one person was killed in the blasts and his health minister, Konstantin Skorupsky, said five people were injured, including a child.
Videos posted on social media showed a fireball forming after a loud blast, as thick billows of black smoke rose into the sky and panicked holidaymakers left the nearby beach. Despite the conflict, Crimea has remained an important vacation spot for many Russians who continue to enjoy summer on its shores.
Russian oil transit cut
On Tuesday, the Russian company responsible for transporting hydrocarbons, Transneft, announced that deliveries of Russian oil through Ukrainian territory to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, Member States of the European Union without access to the sea, were interrupted on August 4.
Transneft explained that the payment for the right of transit through Ukraine for the month of August, made on July 22, had been refused because of the entry into force of certain sanctions against Russia.
Deliveries to Poland and Germany, through Belarus, “continue” on the other hand “normally”, assured Transneft.
The EU has been trying since the start of the conflict in Ukraine to reduce its energy dependence on Russia, which it accuses of using its hydrocarbon supplies as a “weapon of war”, and has opted in June for a gradual embargo on Russian oil.
Supply through the Druzhba pipeline has been authorized to be extended “temporarily”, without a deadline. A concession obtained by the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, who cultivates his relations with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and on whom the country depends for 65% of its consumption on this cheap Russian oil.
Dollars for demining
According to the Ukrainian army general staff, the Russians continued on Tuesday to bombard several localities in eastern Ukraine, around Cherniguiv in the north, Kharkiv in the northeast, as well as the city of Mykolaiv, in the south.
In the eastern region of Donetsk, a total of more than 3,000 civilians, including 600 children, have been evacuated since authorities made such evacuations mandatory in late July, kyiv said.
There is now only “a population of 350,000 people, including 50,000 children”, about 1.3 million having now left following the outbreak of the war.
The situation remains complex at the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporijjia, the largest in Europe. The site located in the southern part of Ukraine was the target at the end of last week of strikes of as yet undetermined origin, the Russians and the Ukrainians returning the responsibility.
Currently, the Russian military is “implementing the program [du groupe russe] Rosatom aiming to switch it to the Crimean electricity networks, ”denounced the boss of the Ukrainian company Energoatom, Petro Kotin, in the evening.
“The first condition for this is to damage the power lines connecting the plant to the Ukrainian energy system. From August 7 to 9, the Russians have already damaged three power lines. At the moment, the plant is operating with a single line of electricity output, which is an extremely dangerous mode of operation”, because if it is cut, “the plant will have to switch to diesel generators, and everything will depend on their reliability. explained Petro Kotin.
Russia also launched Tuesday, from Kazakhstan, an Iranian observation satellite which, according to the American press, could be used by Moscow to support its offensive in Ukraine, which Tehran refutes.
The American president, Joe Biden, for his part initialed on Tuesday the ratification by the United States of the accessions of Sweden and Finland to NATO, which thus responds to the Russian invasion.
The United States will also devote $ 89 million to help Ukraine destroy anti-personnel mines posed, according to them, voluntarily by Russian soldiers in inhabited areas in the north of the country before withdrawing in March.