(Moscow) A fire broke out Wednesday morning on a military field in the east of the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, said the local Russian governor, prompting the authorities to order the evacuation of more than 2,000 civilians.
“The temporary evacuation of residents of four localities adjacent to the military field in the Kirovski district is planned. It is more than 2,000 people,” Governor Sergei Aksionov said on Telegram.
He added that a section of highway linking the port of Kerch in eastern Crimea with Sevastopol in the southwest had to be closed due to the fire.
According to the speaker of the Crimean parliament Vladimir Konstantinov, quoted by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti, the evacuated inhabitants will not be able to return home for two or three days, once the fire is extinguished.
Two Russian online media, Mash and Baza, close to the Russian security services, reported in the morning that detonations had been audible in the area for more than two hours.
According to Mash, an ammunition depot is on fire. The Izvestia newspaper’s Telegram account posted images of the fire, showing plumes of black smoke rising into the sky.
The Russian authorities, in particular the army, have not confirmed the explosion of ammunition nor evoked for the time being possible causes of the fire. All relevant departments are hard at work and a coordination center has been set up, Mr. Aksionov said.
The Ukrainian military intelligence service, the GUR, for its part denied a claim presented on Telegram as coming from its chief, Kyrylo Budanov.
GUR spokesman Andriy Yussov told Ukrainian state media Suspilne that “the comment, allegedly on behalf of Kyrylo Budanov, that the explosion at the Crimean training ground was the work of the armed forces and of the GUR is a fake”.
Since the launch of the offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, Crimea has been the regular target of aerial and naval drone attacks.
On Monday, the Kerch Bridge, an important road and rail infrastructure linking the peninsula annexed to Russia, was hit by a Ukrainian attack which damaged it for the second time in ten months.